Remnants
by forevermagik13
Summary: Continuing their battle against the darkness, Sora and all of his friends must fight new enemies, but also old enemies. All they want is for light and peace to be restored to the Worlds. This may be their last shot.
1. Tomorrow

**Author's Note: **What? New story? Yup. Exactly that. This is a continuation of "All the Pieces" and "Betwixt and Between." Granted, it also has it's ties to the prequel. I'm going to wrap up what I started with "All the Pieces." Who's along for the ride?

* * *

_Hollow Bastion: Kairi, Age 17_

Kairi stared out over the Great Maw. The darkness made her skin crawl. They were going to take care of this, and soon. They were running out of time.

If Namine were here, she'd say something very insightful, surely, because that's what Namine did. But Namine was with Riku and Roxas. All of them were recovering from a rather nasty battle that happened in The World that Never Was when they went there to check how _that _World was doing. Mostly they were just resting. Sora was asleep too, when she and Axel had left earlier.

However, Kairi and Axel were the only two who had gone to Hollow Bastion to see how things were going. Axel had gone by himself a week and half ago (after going first to the parallel universe and running into the Riku Replica—whom they'd all met two days ago because Vexen apparently wanted to do a science experiment). Axel and Kairi were currently with Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie; there to take notes, but prepared to fight if necessary.

"Tomorrow," Leon said, breaking Kairi out of her thoughts. "We'll go tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" Kairi asked. Not that she minded, she just wanted to know.

"Too late to mobilize today," Leon said, looking around. "But I don't think we have too much longer. All the plans are set. When we get back to Headquarters, I'll tell Cid to send the message out."

Kairi nodded. Leon wouldn't have to tell anyone currently residing on Destiny Islands. As soon as she and Axel got back, everyone would know. Namine probably knew instinctively already, with her pictures having the propensity to predict near future events. Kairi hoped that Namine, Riku, and Roxas would be ready for tomorrow. This was going to be a big battle. But they would have a lot of help.

"Well, if we're doing this tomorrow, I'm going to want to get some sleep," Axel said. He relaxed his grip on his chakrams. The Heartless were not attacking.

"You're lazy," Yuffie said.

Kairi snorted. All she could think about was all the times she'd called Sora a lazy bum. That morning being the most recent time.

"Let's get back to the house," Aerith said quietly. "No sense getting caught out here and be forced to fight."

At Aerith's mention of that, Kairi decided that it would be a good idea to banish her Keyblade. The Heartless were attracted to that sort of thing. And if they didn't _want _to be fighting today, since they'd be fighting tomorrow, Kairi didn't want to be responsible.

No one moved for a second. They were all somewhat entranced by the Heartless, growing and festering down there. Kairi's nose twitched.

"We'll come early tomorrow," she insisted. "Xion and Roxas will make sure Axel gets out of bed."

"Oi!" Axel complained.

Kairi and Leon ignored Axel. Leon nodded in her direction.

"I'll be up early," Aerith said. "So don't think you can arrive too early."

"You should sleep too, you know," Leon said, sending Aerith a wry smile. She shrugged.

"Well, let's get back," Leon repeated.

At that point, the five of them finally turned around and started heading back into town. No Heartless bothered them, for which Kairi was grateful. She got the feeling that she'd be seeing more Heartless tomorrow than she'd want to deal with in a long time.


	2. Attack on the Castle

**Author's Note: **Hey look! Story! I don't have much to say that didn't get said in the last chapter. Drop a review if you like it :) Or if you don't and have got constructive criticism. I like reviews.

* * *

_Aerith's House: Roxas, Age 17_

"Hey, boy, c'mere!"

Roxas looked over at Sora. Sora had finished breakfast and was trying to get a dog to come over to him. Roxas rolled his eyes and went back to his eggs. He was much more of a person once he'd eaten. And so long as Aerith was going to insist on making everyone eat…

"She's a girl," Rinoa said, coming down the stairs. "And she's old."

"How old?" Sora asked.

Rinoa thought about this for a minute. "Erm, thirteen. Ish."

"Wow, that is old!"

"Her breed can live to eighteen," Rinoa said. "Plus, animals surrounded my magic tend to live even longer than that."

Rinoa walked over to where the dog was sleeping.

"Are you going to help out today, Angelo?" Rinoa asked in the voice generally reserved for babies and pets. Roxas didn't understand it, but it existed.

"I'm awake," Yuffie said, also coming downstairs. "Why aren't we doing anything yet?"

"We're waiting on the King," Leon said. "And while he'd understand if we started, I would like to wait."

Yuffie rolled her eyes.

Roxas heard a star shard appear outside. That was probably going to be the King. He started shoveling the eggs and ham into his mouth faster.

"You're going to get sick eating that fast!" Xion hissed.

"Hush," he said, his mouth full.

She snickered.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy all walked in.

"Everyone ready?" Mickey asked.

"Just about," Aerith said, looking at different shiny orbs. Materia, those were called?

"Let's head outside," Leon said. "We'll be able to talk more freely out there. This house is only so big."

"We're making it bigger," Aerith pointed out.

"We added another bedroom," Leon said.

"Good thing, too," Tifa added. "Not that I minded cramming beds everywhere, but…"

Aerith just shrugged and smiled, as she often did when there was talk of how many people could fit in her house at any given point in time. She raised her staff and tapped the butt of it on the ceiling above her.

"We're going!" she called. Then she walked over to the door to Cid's room and workshop. She rapped on his door as well.

"Ima comin'!" was Cid's response.

Roxas decided that he was going to be done eating. He got up from the table and picked up his plate.

"Leave it," Aerith told him. "We'll get to it later."

Roxas nodded and set his plate back down. He followed Aerith out of the house.

Everyone gathered in the nearby Borough. Roxas was slightly amazed at just how many people came _out _of Aerith's house. Roxas was aware that when they all showed up that morning, they'd added seven people, but there were ten people living in Aerith's house currently. It really was no wonder they wanted to add the other bedroom. Plus there were the others…

Leon climbed up a ladder and perched on the roof.

"And you tell me not to do that," Yuffie grunted.

"Can everyone hear me?" Leon asked.

There were nods and murmurs of "yes" all around.

"The plan is to fight straight to the Castle. We don't stop for anything. The Heartless will try and slow us down, but we need to not waste our time on the merely bothersome ones. The goal is to get at least one person who knows what they're doing with computers and then someone who has dealt with Space Paranoids before all the way to the Computer Room. We may not need that much help from Tron, but just in case. That's why there are so many of us here. Only two or three need to make it all the way. A lot of us will need to stay in the Great Maw and also the Postern just to keep the way to the Computer Room clear. I'm not assigning teams or anything, but try to stick with a buddy or two."

Everyone nodded at Leon's speech.

"Questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"In that case," Leon said. "Let's move!"

He leapt back down to the ground walked over to Rinoa, who muttered something about flying, but Roxas didn't catch exactly what.

Xion wrapped her arm around his. "Buddy?"

Roxas snorted. "Of course!"

She grinned.

Some people (namely Sora and Yuffie) were already running to the Bailey.

"Let's go," Roxas said. "Before Sora gets to all the Heartless."

Xion laughed. "I think there will still be Heartless left for us."

"There will be more Heartless than any of us want to deal with," Namine said, running up beside them. "Trust me."

Xion shrugged. "I could use a challenge. Good training to be a Master, yeah?"

Roxas agreed.

They got to the Bailey. It was as if the Heartless knew they were coming. The gates and corridors were filled with Heartless. There were also a lot of Heartless that were particularly good at Blizzard magic. Roxas heard the few Vexen Replicas they had to help them swear.

"Xion!" Riku called. "Thunderbolt!"

Xion nodded and ran over to Riku. Namine traded places with her.

"Keep fighting," she told Roxas. "I will cover you."

Roxas nodded and kept swiping at the Heartless with his Keyblade. Namine had her knife drawn, but she wasn't using it yet. She was just making certain Heartless disappear before they could become problems for Roxas. Roxas decided not to pay her any bother. Namine had proven time and time again that she could take care of herself.

Like yesterday, in The World that Never Was, where, at one point, she saved all three of their butts. Sure, they'd had to get her an elixir pretty quickly after that, but Riku kept them on him for a reason.

Roxas felt the electricity of Riku and Xion's Thunderbolt and he maneuvered away from it. Not that the thunder would actually hurt him, but there was no point being over there killing Heartless when Riku and Xion were taking care of it.

"How's your arm, by the way?" he asked. She'd gotten bitten by some Heartless or another.

"It's fine," Namine said.

"Good," Roxas replied. He went back to killing Heartless.

Xion and Riku finished their combo and Xion joined Roxas again. Namine went back over to Riku. Roxas considered a combo with Xion, but figured she could use a break.

Besides, most of the Heartless were disappearing already. They'd all been of a Blizzard type, which was really good for people like Axel, who was having a blast over to Roxas' left. Most everyone else had been making use of Fire magic. Roxas was doing fine with hack-and-slash. Not only were they Blizzard-type, they were also fairly weak.

Soon enough, the way through the Bailey was clear.

"Does anyone need to stay behind here?" one of the Vexen Replicas asked. Roxas wasn't sure which one it was. He thought it might be one of the ones from Castle Oblivion.

"No," Rinoa responded. "This area will stay clear or it won't, we need to focus our efforts closer to the Great Maw."

So they kept moving. They got to the Ravine Trail and were met with more Heartless. These ones didn't look like they were particularly weak to anything. But Thunder seemed to be effective when Xion cast it. Roxas figured he'd save his magic. Though, at the rate he was attacking, it'd build back up anyway.

"Yo, how's it going?" Axel asked, leaping over.

"Good," Roxas said. "Just fighting Heartless, the usual."

Axel snorted.

"What in the…?" Xion began.

Roxas followed her gaze. Sora and Donald were carrying Goofy around as a battering ram against the Heartless.

"Clearly they've done that before," Roxas mused.

"They shouldn't remember that," Namine mused. "Unless they've figured it out again."

Roxas looked over at her. He was less surprised about the fact that she was totally referring to Sora's time in Castle Oblivion—lightly, even—and more surprised about how she was suddenly with the four of them.

"You're as bad as Axel sometimes," he muttered.

Namine didn't respond.

"The three of us should learn an attack like that," Xion said.

"You're not carrying me around like a battering ram!" Axel shouted.

"No, silly," Xion said. "Something of our own."

"Not today," Roxas said. "Or, not yet at least."

"Yeah, yeah," Xion said, tossing her Keyblade and killing several Heartless.

"Where's Riku?" Roxas asked.

Namine gestured over to where Mickey was. Riku and Mickey were fighting alongside each other. To be more specific, they were spinning around back-to-back, shooting out balls of both light and darkness, killing most of the enemies they hit and confusing the rest.

"Master Form!" Sora warned.

"Sora, no!" Riku called out.

It was too late. In a flash of light, Sora's clothes grew golden and he suddenly held Riku's blade in his hands along with his own.

"How much you want to bet Riku swears something awful when Sora's done with that?" Roxas asked.

"Not much," Axel replied. "Not with Aerith in earshot."

Riku still came back swearing when Sora's Master Form had run out. After a bit though, he stopped.

"Excuse me," Namine said, leaving them to go back to Riku.

"Get the feeling Sora's showing off?" Xion asked. "First that Trinity and then a Drive Form?"

"Nah, I think he's just trying to get rid of the Heartless," Roxas replied.

Xion flashed him a grin. "Shall we?"

"Call of Light or Event Horizon?"

"I think Event Horizon should suffice."

"You got it."

So they did that. As each of them were pumping light into the enemies, Roxas heard Axel say "Oh, what the hey," and throw in some fire as well.

Most everyone had worked their way down the Trail and to the Crystal Fissure.

"Some people should stay behind," Cloud said. "Keep this as clear as possible."

Merlin and Donald volunteered themselves. One of the Vexen Replicas might have also done so. Roxas really wasn't paying attention.

The years had not been good to the Crystal Fissure. Roxas had vague memories from Sora of fighting his way through here and he remembered Sora was angry, but he couldn't place why. He didn't have too much time to think about that, though. There were more Heartless, tougher Heartless. Ones he couldn't just mindlessly kill.

He and Xion worked back-to-back effectively. At one point, he saw Riku and Kairi duplicating the attack Riku and Mickey had been doing earlier. Roxas couldn't be sure how the darkness Riku was shooting out was effective against yet more darkness, but clearly it was working. Maybe that was what was confusing them.

Namine was suddenly by him and Xion again. She had a tendency to do that when Riku was elsewhere, apparently. Roxas couldn't blame her. She mostly did the memory thing, and she had to be careful she didn't tire herself out. The knife was primarily for emergencies. He was half-tempted to just hand her his Keyblade and let her use that for a bit (he knew she could) while he used magic. But it was just more effective if he kept his blade…

"Cyclone?" Namine asked.

Roxas looked at her and grinned.

Now _that _was a good idea.

He grabbed onto Namine's right hand with his left. White-blue light surrounded them and then the Aeroga kicked in. They lifted off of the ground and Roxas pointed his Keyblade at the best angle for killing Heartless. They spun around the area like a top, killing everything they touched.

"That was effective," Namine said, drawing her knife again.

"Yes," Roxas agreed. "It was."

He made his way back over to Axel and Xion while Namine worked her way over to Kairi. It wasn't much longer before the way through the Fissure was clear.

"I'll stay behind," Tifa volunteered.

Terra, Goofy, and a Vexen Replica stayed behind. Roxas was fairly certain that was 42. He had that air of stuffiness about him that really only 42 had.

The rest of them moved into the Great Maw and the amount of Heartless was both astounding and slightly scary. He heard Kairi's sharp intake of breath, sounding almost like a hiss. Roxas readied his blade.


	3. Battle in the Air

**Author's Note: **So, I don't think this is _that _big of a jump from Betwixt and Between. To be honest, BB ended pretty roughly because I realized I just had too much stuff going on and I ended it rather than let it suffer. Then I took a long time break in between writing things, (for example, I wrote the prequel) and then I picked this back up. If I were to put a timeframe on how much time passed between BB and Remnants, I would say no more than a month-mostly based on how things work with the lineup between my universe and rar's. Yes, we are a long way away from KH2 and AtP, but BB took place over a very long span of time anyway and it was really timey-whimey. That said, let's move on! I think the pacing in Remnants is _much _better.

* * *

_The Great Maw: Rinoa, Age 28_

Rinoa stayed above the Heartless. Or at least, as many as she could. There were several that could fly, reminding her of the mythical nightshades that she read about when she was younger. But she'd had a couple of close encounters over the past couple of months where Heartless had grabbed her and dragged her down. The first time, Squall had saved her. The second time, it was all both she and Aerith could do to get away.

The Heartless were also getting larger. There were some the level of Darksides, though they looked more ragged and angry.

"Squall!" she called.

He looked up at her. She pointed at the nearest giant one. He nodded and worked his way over to it, charging up his blade as he went. By the time he'd gotten over there, he was already ready for Renzokuken. Rinoa was going to save her Aura's. She had a feeling that she was going to be staying here in the Great Maw and keeping the way relatively clear. She wasn't going to be any good with the computers. They needed to get people like one of the Vexen Replicas and Sora through there.

Rinoa cast Meteor over a very large concentration of Heartless. That would help. Squall threw Blasting Zone into the area as well.

Cloud had picked up on the fact that there were larger Heartless, too, he was going after one with a very excellently-timed Omnislash. However, the Heartless he was attacking didn't die by the time he was done with it. Rinoa cast Death on it, hoping it had been weakened enough for that to work. It did. Cloud didn't seem to care who'd killed the Heartless from afar, he just went to the next Heartless.

Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief. She'd learned very quickly that she couldn't just cast Death on all of these Heartless. A lot of them were too strong for her Death spells to work—Sorceress or no.

She cast Meltdown on a couple more Heartless just to ruin their vitality. She looked over and realized she was not the only one in the air anymore at that moment. Namine and Roxas were riding on a giant wind current, hovering over the Heartless as they simultaneously targeted them. It looked like a combination of magic and Roxas' Keyblade. Regardless of what it was, it was effective.

Rinoa decided that now would be a good time for a quick succession of Meteor, Ultima, and then Flare. Oh yes, that was effective, too.

She flew over the battlefield elsewhere. She was surprised to find Zack with his sword on his back, dealing with seven different Heartless at once, all with his bare hands. That was something she hadn't seen before, but he clearly knew what he was doing.

Well, seeing as she didn't need to help him out, she sent out some basic Blizzagas into the battlefield in general. Just for good measure.

She was distracted by a burst of light, as Ven was suddenly surrounded by light and six more blades appeared like wings behind him. Whatever he was doing, it was clear he was going for something that was designed to combat multiple enemies from all directions.

"Enjoying the flight?" she asked, swooping over.

"Of course!" he said, grinning.

The grin was eerie. Mostly because Rinoa had seen it on him, Roxas, and Sora all. It had something to do with their hearts and Rinoa had decided to stop trying to figure it out.

She cast Thundaga for fun.

For a second, she thought the Thundaga had lasted longer than it usually did. Then she realized that Quistis was using her Electrocute Blue Magic. Rinoa had tried to learn that, but it hadn't gone very well. She didn't have _that_ much control over the Thundaga. Sure, she had the power behind it, but not the control. Certainly something she had room to work on.

But casting things like Ultima were just so much fun…

So she did that.

Ven or Roxas had teamed up with the King and were sending out little orbs of light against the Heartless. Wait, that was definitely Ven. Ven was wearing a green shirt that morning. Roxas was in all black. Rinoa couldn't tell the difference in their faces from a distance.

A large chunk of Heartless suddenly froze. One of the Vexen Replicas was probably responsible for that. Rinoa took advantage and threw a Flare over in that direction.

Now Ven was over with Roxas and the two of them were dashing around, hitting everything they touched with their Keyblades. Repeatedly, they'd rise up, then spiral down and kill whatever Heartless they landed on. Effective.

Rinoa wasn't sure why they kept catching her eye, but between those two boys… As for Roxas, Rinoa hadn't the slightest… However, perhaps it was because Ven was just so full of light and Rinoa could feel it. She'd gotten used to Aerith's. Kairi's she could sense too, but Kairi's was different. She was a Princess of Heart, it was natural for her heart to be so full of light. Ven, on the other hand, should not have been pure light, but was because one of Xehanort's plans backfired. Rinoa allowed herself a chuckle at that.

Then she cast Holy on a patch of larger Heartless.

"Final!" Sora announced.

Roxas disappeared as Sora was swathed in light. His clothes took on a white color and Roxas' blade was suddenly in his left hand. He controlled the blades with his mind as they swept the Heartless

Rinoa cast Firaga because she could.

She cocked her head to one side as she heard the unmistakable sound of Renzokuken again. Grinning, she flew over there and landed right behind Squall.

"Behind you," she called.

Squall was in the middle of slashing at a larger Heartless again and again.

"I hear you," he said.

She laughed and cast Meteor twice in quick succession.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, killing Heartless," Squall replied with a smirk.

She smiled and turned to him. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then flew off again. She heard Squall laughing behind her, but soon it got lost in the noise of the fray.

"Watch it!" Cloud called. Rinoa's response was to fly higher up, though that almost didn't save her. Cloud was in the middle of a Limit of his own that involved a very high jump. Climhazzard, she figured it was.

"Sorry!" she called back.

Cloud only grunted in response.

Laughing nervously, Rinoa got out of the way. She cast a couple of Blizzagas and kept moving. She heard a sizzle of Thunder magic and looked over to see Xion and Namine in the middle of a very Thunder-based combo. Smiling at their use of magic, Rinoa moved to a less populated area and focused her some Flares and Holys over there.

A burst of greenish-white light flowed over the field. Rinoa felt instantly more alert and awake. She scanned the crowd and saw Aerith righting herself. Rinoa figured it was her. Aerith's healing waves felt different from Quistis'. Plus, Rinoa could detect a slight bit of invincibility added, which was a distinctly Aerith trait.

Rinoa cast a few spells at random, hardly even aware of which ones she was casting. They were smaller ones like Blizzara and Fira though. She was distracted by Aqua's Ghost Drive—a technique she'd seen before. It was one of the very good high-magic styles that Rinoa envied, but there was no way she could imitate it. It depended highly on a blade. And Rinoa only nicked Squall's occasionally, and she wouldn't use it for something like that.

Another wave of light passed over the battlefield. Rinoa spun around, trying to figure who was the cause of them. It wasn't an average wave of light, it was white-hot. It was coming from Namine and Sora. She flew closer and got hit with a pillar of light. She backpedaled mid-air, but wasn't harmed. Though the light was largely dangerous to the Heartless below her, it did nothing but actually heal her a little bit.

"Good one, you two!"

"Thanks," Namine said sheepishly.

Sora just grinned.

"Hey, Rinoa," Zell called. She looked over and saw him waving. "A little help, yeah?"

Rinoa figured it wouldn't hurt to give him an Aura now. It wasn't like she had a limited stock, really. And since he was asking for it…

Zell basked in the orange glow for a couple of seconds before running off.

"You remember how to do this, right?" she heard Ven ask.

"Like I'd forget!" Zack replied.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow and looked over. Zack and Ven were dashing about almost faster than she could see. It took her a second to remember that many years ago, Zack and Ven had spent time together. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like for the pair, knowing that Zack had aged those years and Ven had not.

To clear her head of those odd thoughts (time sometimes confused her), she cast Ultima several times in a row.

"Final!" Sora shouted out.

"Hold on a sec!" Roxas shouted back.

Rinoa turned just in time to see Roxas slaughter about six Neoshadows with his blade.

"We're good," he said after that.

Sora activated Final Form.

Teamwork, Squall would be proud.

Speaking of… Rinoa felt a tug.

Squall was surrounded by three of the Supermassive Possessor Heartless. A hiss escaped Rinoa's mouth. She _loathed _those Heartless. They flew, they felt like they were sucking the life out of a person, they flew, they liked to be in groups, they targeted people at random and swarmed them, they flew…

"No you don't," she seethed, sending Flare in that direction, guiding it so it didn't hit Squall, but only the Possessors.

The flames lasted longer and Rinoa realized that Axel had helped.

"Thanks," she said.

Axel gave her a thumbs up.

Squall nodded his thanks as well.

One of the Supermassive Possessors tried to drag her down. They did this thing where they latched onto her back and knocked her off-balance, which dragged them both to the ground. She couldn't direct her magic at them either.

"Squall!" she shouted. "Axel!"

The response she got was from neither of them. Rather, a few blaster gun shots. The Heartless lessened its grip and she was able to get away.

"Kuin!" Axel shouted.

"I appear to have missed the start of the party," came the response.

Rinoa recognized the girl. She had purple hair pulled back into a small ponytail and had double blaster-pistols. Rinoa had met her at the magical meeting the King had called.

"Sorry I'm late," Kuin said. "I didn't realize I was needed until now."

"Thank you," Rinoa said.

Kuin gave a curt nod and started focusing on the Heartless.

"The way's pretty clear, yeah?" Sora shouted. "Should we move on?"

"You should go," Cloud said. "We can hold the rest off."

"I'll stay," Squall said.

"I will too," Rinoa said.

Zack, Ven, Roxas, 27, and Zell all agreed to stay as well.

Everyone else moved forward, taking off at full spring towards the Postern.

"You coming?" Axel asked.

"Yeah," was Kuin's response.

"Sorry I didn't get to you," Squall said. "Those things…"  
"I know," Rinoa said. "I don't blame you."

"Luckily that girl came through," Squall said. "Who even is she?"

"Her name's Kuin, she's a mage of sorts."

"Good with a gun though."

Rinoa nodded. "Let's keep getting rid of these Heartless."

"Yeah."

Rinoa cast Aura on the people remaining. Squall spared no time going into Renzokuken, Zell went equally as fast into Duel. Cloud and Zack went into their Limits, used to this sort of thing. It took Roxas and Ven a bit to remember what Aura was good for, but then Roxas leapt into a very light-based Limit and Ven summoned the six more blades of light around him. 27 however, looked confused.

"Limit," Rinoa coughed. "You've got one, right?"

27's eyes went wide and he nodded. He sent out a burst of icicles from the ground, which instantly began killing Heartless.

"That's the idea," Rinoa said, casting several Meteors in a row.

She'd long-since stopped needing the Aura spell. She could cast any spell she wanted whenever she wanted and there wasn't much else she could do, short of having one of Squall's blades, and she hadn't figured out a Limit related to that. There was a time when Angelo used to come help, but that poor old girl's fighting days were over. Maybe the occasional small Shadow around the Borough, but not something major like this.

Regardless, Rinoa could still do things like cast Meteor, Holy, Flare, and Ultima all in a row with no negative effects. It was nice. She took a moment to do just that. She also realized that she might want to be the one to pay attention to healing the others. With Aerith gone and her left with this lot, she could guarantee that no one else was paying attention to such things.


	4. Leftover Data

**Author's Note: **Peach, the Hollow Bastion dog is totally Rinoa's Angelo. Who certainly had a few appearances in the Prequel, but doesn't play a huge part. (Animals and children are so hard to work with! - This is a filming adage that also applies to other arts.) Anywho, enough babbling. I'm very much posting this super-early, but my week is lined up to be super-crazy, so I'm posting this before I forget!

* * *

_Postern: Riku, Age 18_

Riku couldn't help but overhear the argument between Axel and Kuin. It wasn't as if he particularly wanted to be privy to it, but if they were going to insist on shouting, there wasn't much he could do.

"You're the one who showed up around everyone!"

"Yeah, well, I was needed!"

"That's just code for your gl—"

"Ah-ah-ah!"

"Oi!"

"Oi yourself!"

Riku rolled his eyes. So long as they weren't going to get into trouble because they were bickering. He had no problems with Kuin. She seemed nice enough, what little he'd seen of her. (They'd officially met once in Twilight Town. There was ice cream.)

They arrived at the Postern area which was still crawling in Heartless. Just like the way through had been. But here there was a larger concentration. Not as big as the Great Maw, but still enough that they couldn't quite get to the castle yet.

Sora and Kairi started in with Fated Faith, the light magic doing wonders. Quistis did something with lasers, which also helped.

Riku looked at Namine.

"Shall we clear some of this up?" he asked.

"Crisis level isn't high enough for Decompression to be effective," Namine mused. "Light Aura?"

"Sure," Riku said with a grin. He grasped her hand for a brief second and felt the power surge through him. He leapt up off of the ground, directed the power through his blade and surged forward. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

But more than nine enemies down. The light in his blade had made the darkness squirm and shy away. It probably had negative status effects on them, too. Namine's light followed in thirteen pillars of light, causing yet more damage. Riku settled back to the ground, smirking.

"That went well," Namine said.

"Kinda wish I had a cann'n, yeah?" Cid grunted.

"You wouldn't have been able to move it all the way through here," Aerith sang.

"Meh."

Cid leapt up into the air and came back down, driving his spear through a couple of Heartless at once.

"Gotcha buggers!"

Yuffie appeared to be darting around at random, but Riku was fairly positive she knew what she was doing. Xion followed right behind her. Sora and Kairi were working together. Aerith was staying near Cid. Quistis and Aqua were working together. Axel and Kuin were back-to-back. Mickey was covering 34 and vice-versa. Ienzo and Pi were working together. And he had Namine.

But it was still all of them against all of the Heartless.

"Valor!" Sora shouted.

Riku noted that he did at least _look _at Kairi, who nodded.

Sora was bathed in reddish-white light for a second, Kairi disappeared. Sora gripped her Keyblade in his hand, grinned, and set off on more enemies.

Well, at least it wasn't Master.

"It's been a bit since Anti-Form," Namine mused.

"Oh don't tell me," Riku groaned.

Namine shrugged. "I can't be sure. He went into Final Form at least three times at the Great Maw."

"Really? I only noticed two," Riku replied with a shrug.

Namine shrugged as well. "It's not my place to keep track of it, but sometimes I can't help it…"

"Did you see it?" Riku asked.

"Hard to see when I'm knee-deep in Heartless memories."

"Valid point."

It wasn't much later before the Postern was completely clear.

"You guys go," Aerith said. "We'll make sure this stays clear."

"Who do you mean by 'we'?" Yuffie asked.

"You should stay, Yuffie, you'll have better aim out here," Quistis said.

Yuffie grumbled, but acknowledged that Quistis was right.

In the end, Aerith, Mickey, Yuffie, and Quistis all stayed, leaving the others to move forward.

"Before you go, though," Aerith said, slamming her staff into the ground.

The healing wave was like a breath of fresh air.

"Health and magic," Aerith said, smiling. "Just what you all need."

Riku looked at Namine. Sometimes he worried about her magic levels. But she always seemed to have been balancing the memory shattering with other things so as not to get too low. That time in Neverland had taught them both well. Riku carried Elixirs for her sole purpose, his own magic having gotten to the point where he didn't notice it wear down. Ever. Probably because he hardly ever used it.

They went into the Castle. Sora and Kairi were running in front, mostly because they had been at the door first. Xion was right behind them and Pi behind her. Why was Pi all the way up there? He'd already admitted multiple times that he wasn't a good fighter.

"Run ahead," Namine urged. "You know you want to."

Riku nodded and did just that, matching pace with Axel and Cid. Ienzo was right behind them. Ienzo was going to make it as far as he possibly could. For multiple reasons.

Aside from Ienzo, the only others who were behind him were Namine, Kuin, Aqua, and 34. Not a bad group. But they still had to navigate the Castle corridors just to get to the study, and there would be no telling what would be waiting there.

And then the Heartless showed up.

Xion doubled-back and extended her hand out to Riku. "Critical Impact?" she asked.

Riku grasped her hand. The power surged through them both and they launched outwards at the Heartless. Riku slashed at one three times and killed it. Then he targeted a second with a downward slash, getting rid of it with only that blow. He turned around again, jumped into the air, then slammed back down at the same time Xion did that. The following ruckus killed probably half a dozen more.

"Wisdom?" Sora called. This time it was a question.

"Sure, you ask her, but you just announce it for Master," Riku grumbled.

Namine, in the meantime, had nodded. Sora drove into Wisdom and sped about the mini battlefield, shooting at the Heartless from a distance.

"How about it, Riku?" Kairi asked, coming up beside him.

She, too, held out her hand.

"Light," Kairi said.

Riku smiled and grabbed Kairi's hand. The two of them spun about, shooting out Pearls of light, causing damage to everything the light touched.

They got rid of the Heartless.

Namine reappeared on the floor and they all started walking. They turned a corner, only for Namine and Xion to both collapse to the floor and for Pi and 34 to seek support via the walls.

"Namine!" Riku shouted, rushing to her.

Xion screamed.

"The memories!" Namine whimpered.

"Xaldin," Ienzo spat.

Sora and Kairi were mumbling about something or other, but Riku was mostly worried about Namine (and Xion) because they were the ones curled up in balls on the floor.

"What is this?" Riku growled.

"Leftover data," Namine said through cringed teeth. "And darkness."

"Xaldin went on a killing-spree," Ienzo said.

"Make it stop!" Xion screeched.

Kairi, though a little wobbly herself, stumbled over to Xion to hold her like Riku was doing Namine.

Aqua and Kuin were muttering protection spells for the group under their breaths.

Riku didn't feel any change, but after a moment or two, Namine was able to uncurl her fingers from her face.

"You said this wouldn't happen," Xion coughed.

"I did not expect such a large mass of leftover data in one concentrated area," 34 replied, sputtering a bit himself.

It suddenly made sense to Riku. Everyone with even the tiniest ounce of data, even Kairi, was affected by this. And Namine probably had a double-dose because of the memories. He held her as close as her rigid body would allow him to.

"Why this hallway and not others?" Riku asked, fighting to keep his voice calm.

"This would have been where a lot of the Replicas congregated," Pi said. "This was a research corridor."

Riku could see the scenario all too clearly. He didn't have to be Namine to do that.

Namine sat up with a groan.

"The memories," she whispered. "They're so _awful_!"

She slammed her hand against the nearby wall, screaming as she did.

"Try to push them away," Xion said. "They're not yours, you don't need to keep them."

"What she said, Miss Namine…" 34 echoed.

Namine groaned, turning her head and leaning over. Then she wretched on the floor. It was all Riku could do to get the pieces of hair that had escaped her ponytails out of her face. He scowled. He couldn't even fight what it was away, which aggravated him more.

Cid swore. "Esuna!"

Namine's breakfast already on the floor, she eased up into Riku's arms again.

"Sorry I didn' thin' o' tha' sooner," Cid mumbled.

Namine raised up a hand to stop him.

"It's fine," she said, her voice hoarse.

Kairi was already handing her a hi-potion.

Namine drank it willfully.

"Are we good to move?" Aqua asked.

"I need out of this hallway," Namine said.

"Can you walk?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, just help me up."

Riku stood up and then helped Namine to her feet. He then steadied her as they moved down that hallway and into another. Kairi helped Xion, though Sora followed close behind. Everyone else moved along as well. Riku noted that Kuin appeared to be swearing emphatically under her breath.

As they moved into another hallway, they were faced with more Heartless. Xion came over to Namine and held out her hand.

"Ready to get those memories out of our heads?" she asked.

Namine nodded eagerly and took her hand. The two were engulfed in a ghostly aura and then they teleported away. Namine pulled the Heartless into one area as Xion targeted that area with precision.

Aqua laughed and joined them in a similar attack. Riku smirked. He'd been picking up some techniques from that combo and combining that with stuff he already knew.

"What was that?" Axel asked, coming over to Riku. "Back there, earlier."

"Clearly something with memories," Riku said.

"Xion seemed pretty susceptible, too," Axel pointed out.

"Xion has a history of being susceptible to memories," Riku responded. "34 acknowledged that."

Axel shook his head. "Replicas."

Riku shrugged.

"_Shib_!" Kuin seethed. Riku looked over and saw Kuin sink to the ground. She pulled up her pant-leg to reveal three long gashes around her calf. Riku frowned. Which was the one with the claws?

It didn't matter anymore. Namine had shattered the rest. She caught Riku's eye and smiled. Her magic levels were fine.

"What the…?" Axel said.

"I'm fine," Kuin said, reaching into the pack around her waist.

Namine walked over.

"I said I don't need help," Kuin said.

"You would rather not bandage and fend them off at the same time. I'm helping you do one of those in case more show up."

"We should get moving," Riku said.

"I'll stay here," Kuin said. "I'd rather not walk on this until I get it cleaned."

"I'll stay, too," Axel said.

"No you won't, you'll go!" Kuin argued.

"I'll stay," Namine said. Aqua and 34 agreed to stay, too. Riku did some quick calculations. They still had Xion and Ienzo with them. They'd be fine for what they needed to do.

The eight of them continued on to Ansem's study. They got there and the place had clearly been ransacked. Ienzo wrinkled up his nose. Riku did the same. The stench of darkness was only getting worse.


	5. This is Unfortunately Real

**Author's Note: **So the reason why it only affected those with data is because the memories were at that point, pure data. So, to look at it from the reverse, no one with data even knew it was there. Roxas would have been affected more than Kairi, but less than Namine and Xion. Xion's a full Replica, Namine has a specialty with memories. Sora would be affected about on par with Kairi. Maybe a little more because he _technically _has more data in him than she does in her, but that's six in one basket and a half dozen in the other.

As for Final Form, that will be explained later!

* * *

_Ansem's Study: Kairi, Age 17_

The place was completely overturned. Kairi couldn't be sure if someone had ransacked the place because they were looking for something, or because someone was trying to keep someone else from finding something important.

Sora started poking around, but Riku stopped him.

"Go!" Riku urged. "Get to the computer room."

"I think I am going to stay here," Ienzo said, perusing the room. "I need to do some snooping. Pi, go with him. Just in case they need access protocols."

Pi nodded.

"S'long as yeh know whatcher doin'," Cid said.

"Of course," Ienzo said.

"Axel, stand guard with me," Riku said. "No one comes in here."

Axel rolled his eyes, but followed Riku.

Kairi turned to Sora.

"Let's go," she said.

Sora nodded and turned to the wall where he knew the door was. He opened it and walked through. Pi followed them and Xion followed him.

The hallway between the study and the Computer Room was quiet, though Kairi could see the machines that manufactured the darkness. Or at least spat it out.

"How can a machine make darkness?" Sora mused. "I barely understood how it made Heartless."  
"It absorbs the darkness from around it and then hoards it," Pi answered. "Its sole purpose was to destroy this World if something were to happen to Xehanort."

"Yeah, well, something happened, all right," Sora grunted.

Xion snorted. "Yeah, us."

Kairi turned her nose up at the machine.

"Do you think we'll need to go into Space Paranoids?" she asked.

"I don't know yet. We haven't been in there since CLU took over, but Cid dealt with that. I want to see Tron but, I know we've got other business out here to take care of."

They walked into the Computer Room. The only noises were their feet on the floor. Half of the lights buzzed on when they walked in, but the other half remained dark. The place reeked of darkness. And Kairi was still a little queasy from the weird data-darkness thing, Esuna or no.

Sora walked over to the computer and pressed a button on the keyboard. The screen came to life, already asking for a password. Sora keyed in a couple of different things, but the only response was: INVALID USER ENTRY in bright red letters.

"Move over," Xion said. She stared at it and frowned.

"See?" Sora began.

"You don't happen to know the protocol password, do you?" she asked, looking at Pi.

"Erm," Pi moved over in front of the keyboard and typed something in.

The dialog box flashed green and the screen changed, probably to something useful, from what Kairi could guess.

"Nifty," Xion muttered, using a word she'd picked up from Zack. She messed around on the computer for a bit, pressing buttons and moving things around. Sora looked over her shoulder. Kairi found herself looking over at the camera eye multiple times, almost as if she was worried they'd be taken into Space Paranoids. Not that they wouldn't be able to take care of themselves. Still, though, Sora was right, as much as they'd like to see Tron right then, they had other things they needed to take care of first.

Now, if they _had _to go into Space Paranoids to get this done, that would be a different story.

"That's it!" Pi exclaimed. "That's the program!"

Kairi got the feeling that Xion was making a snarky comeback under her breath, but no one could hear it.

"Well, it's activated," Xion said. "Now what?"

"I don't know," Kairi replied.

"Let's wait for a second," Pi said. "Just in case."

Xion shrugged.

"Hmm," Sora said, coming back over to the keyboard. Xion moved out of the way. Sora typed a couple of things.

"Hey, Tron, can you hear me?" he asked.

"Hey! Sora! There's a voice I haven't heard in a while!"

Sora lit up. "Tron! You're okay!"

"Sure am! There's been a lot of trouble with access ways. Those darkness bugs are getting in the way."

"I activated something that should make those stop," Xion said.

"Is it working?" Sora asked eagerly.

"I can't tell just yet, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out."

"Thanks!" Sora said.

Kairi heard rustling off to the side and spun around, summoning her Keyblade as she did so. Her movement made the other three summon their weapons as well.

There was a person standing at the door between the Computer Room and the machine room. He was clad in black, though not an Organization cloak, as Kairi made a note to herself. He had silvery-white hair and golden eyes. He had no weapon drawn, but that only made Kairi trust him less. Kairi wrinkled her nose.

"Who are you?" Sora asked, blade bared.

The man chuckled evilly.

"Shame, Sora. You do not recognize me."

"Am I supposed to?" Sora grunted.

The man only laughed more.

"Different look, different voice, different everything," Xion said, pointing her blade at the man. "Still Xehanort."

"Very good, _No. i._"

"I am no longer any experiment of _yours_!" Xion spat.

"How are you even still around?" Sora asked, his face wrinkled up in anger. "I took care of you! I've taken care of you I don't know how many times."

Still, the man laughed. Kairi could not bring herself to call him Xehanort just yet.

"I am but a Xehanort Remnant," he said. "But so long as someone with part of Xehanort's heart remains, I will continue to appear and reappear. And I will infiltrate new hearts until I am reborn complete."

Sora growled something unintelligible and ran at the Xehanort Remnant. But with a more maniacal laugh that time, the Remnant disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"No!" Sora screamed. "He got away."

"It wouldn't matter," Xion said, still staring at the spot where the Remnant had stood. "He said so himself, as long as someone with part of Xehanort's heart remains, he'll keep appearing."

With an angry shout, Sora brought his Keyblade down on the doorframe.

"We'll get him!" Kairi said, running over to calm Sora down. "We have to."

"In other news," Xion said quietly. "The DTP looks like it's running just fine. We should go outside and see if there's any change."

Kairi led Sora back into Ansem's office. Pi had been strangely quiet, but Kairi couldn't bring herself to ask questions.

"Was it supposed to be easy?" Xion asked when they walked back into the study. "Everything seemed to go through just fine."

Ienzo nodded. "The DTP was a measure installed entirely so that if there was a misfire with the DCP, it could be undone easily, provided someone had the passwords. The hard part was actually getting here."

"You can say that again," Axel grunted.

"Sora," Riku said. "What's the face?"

"Xehanort."

"What?"

"Um," Kairi started. "We ran into a Xehanort _Remnant_."

"What?" Riku repeated.

"He called himself a Xehanort Remnant," Xion said. "He said he existed because people are still around with part of him in their hearts. And he's going to try and make a vessel again."

Riku grimaced.

"He could be going for anyone!" Sora exclaimed.

Riku raised an eyebrow.

"That's unlikely," he said, looking Sora right in the eye. "I assure you, he wants specific hearts and specific people. _We're _going to have to worry more than anyone else."

Axel's hand hovered over his heart.

"Are you sure?" Sora asked.

Riku rolled his eyes. "Yes, Sora. I'm 100% sure. Xehanort will go after people he has a history with."

"Xehanort has a history with most people," Kairi said.

"Xehanort's also vengeful," Axel said. "He'll go after people who he'll get the most satisfaction taking over. He'll also be targeting people with tempered darkness. And probably the people who are responsible for his existence."

"Who even is still around?" Xion asked.

"I don't know, but we're going to have to find them," Axel said.

"Oh joy," Sora said.

"Le's ge' back teh the others," Cid said, chewing on a piece of straw as he leaned casually on the spear. "Tha' program's been activated, an' we've got news fer all of 'em."

They started back out into the corridors. Kairi made sure to keep close to Sora. He was very angry about the Xehanort Remnant. She could understand, but she couldn't see how getting angry about it was going to help anything. Maybe she didn't quite believe it was real yet. Maybe she would just be angry later.

If it meant anything, it meant that she wasn't going to have a quiet day for a while, that was for sure.

Kairi also noted that Riku seemed to be walking close to Sora, as if he were worried about Sora's anger as well.

They ran into Namine and Kuin first in the corridors. The four had gotten separated when some Heartless showed up, but everyone could be fairly certain that Aqua and 34 were doing fine.

"How are you doing?" Riku asked, reaching out to Namine.

"I'm fine," Namine said with a nod. "We're going to put shields up over all of us before we even go near that corridor again. Also, I know."

She tapped her head. Kairi knew she'd been listening. Whether it was intentional or not, Kairi wasn't sure. Regardless, Kairi wasn't even bothered. The other option was that Namine had _seen_ it and it had nothing to do with their telepathic connection.

"What's going on?" Kuin asked, coming over.

"Nothing," Namine said. "We'll explain later."

Kuin looked suspicious, but she didn't say anything else.

She looked fine. Her pant leg was in tatters, but her actual calf was well patched up. She slammed her guns against each other, which Kairi was sure served some purpose, then the group started walking.

"If we could find the other two quickly," Ienzo said. "There's another exit out of here that avoids that particular research corridor."

"Is there?" Namine asked. "Because that would be wonderful! I'd appreciate not doing that again!"

"I would too," 34 said, coming out from around a corner. Aqua was right behind him.

"I'll third that, while we're at it," Xion said.

"This way," Ienzo said, taking them down a different hallway.

"This used to be blocked off," Sora mused.

"It was cleared out," Pi said.

_There are several people among us who are not going to be happy when they hear that Xehanort is returning. _

It was Namine.

_Do you want to be more specific about that? _Kairi asked. _Because, I don't think any of them will be happy._

_Mostly Kuin and Aqua. I can tell. _

_Sora's not too thrilled._

_No, neither is Riku. He's just hiding it well._

That fact about Riku did not surprise Kairi in the slightest.

_There's a part of this that doesn't even feel real, _she mused, mostly to herself. But to Namine, too, if she were still listening.

_Unfortunately, it's real. Very, _very, _real._

Kairi snorted, not caring if anyone else noticed. She and Namine had gotten very good about quiet and unnoticeable telepathy, but sometimes little gestures and noises got through.

_Who all is he going to try to go after? _she found herself musing.

_Everyone_.

That was Namine's response. Kairi didn't like that response. She couldn't even be sure if it were an exaggeration or not.

Sora found her hand and gripped it tight. Kairi looked over at him, confused, but he was focused on looking straight ahead. But he squeezed her hand. She squeezed it back.


	6. Not Good News

**Author's Note: **Am I posting this earlier than I intended? Yeah, probably. Does anyone _really _care? No, not really. Except maybe rar, because we're trying to get our universes to line up :P Honestly, I'm getting ahead so I don't fall behind later. My life has a habit of exploding.

But enough about me. Have some story!

* * *

_Postern: Aerith, Age 26_

For a bit there, the Heartless just kept appearing. Most of them were smaller Heartless, but they were still Heartless. Yuffie stopped trying to steal from them, when it became apparent that they had nothing to steal. She focused instead on trying to kill as many of them as possible with each throw.

King Mickey alternated between light attacks and using his Keyblade. Both methods were extremely effective. The Heartless tended to gravitate towards him anyway, because he had the Keyblade. But Aerith literally could laugh at the idea of them getting _his _heart. The King's heart was very strong. The Heartless would like that, but he was still stronger than them.

Quistis was a quiet fighter. She occasionally gave out useful information about the Heartless. Attacks and magic they may be particularly weak to. The biggest one was light. Which meant Aerith was casting a lot of Holy. Quistis, too, was casting a lot of Holy. Between the two of them, everyone had a good guard up.

Everyone was mostly all the way healed all the time. Between Aerith and Quistis, all of that was taken care of. The King was good at keeping himself healed. Aerith noted that he kept an eye on all of them as well. Aerith hardly had to worry about Yuffie not paying attention to when she needed health, partially because Yuffie was getting better about such things, and partially because, between the three others, she would be fine.

"Aerith, I can keep up the guards if you can keep up with the Holys," Quistis said at one point.

Aerith smiled. "Teamwork," she said.

Quistis nodded. "Learn how to handle a large portion of your magic while training alongside Rinoa? Yeah, that would do it."

Aerith laughed. "Well, you've got it."

"Anything you'd like me to do?" King Mickey asked.

Aerith found it a little ironic that the King was asking them what they wanted him to do. Sure, he could take charge if and when he wanted to (Aerith had seen it happen before), but more often than not, the King was perfectly willing to go along with what everyone else wanted, working to help others fight and better themselves, than show off his own skills. Aerith deeply admired that about him.

"You just keep doing what you're doing, Your Majesty," Quistis said. "It's working very well."

"Please," the King said. "Just call me Mickey."

Flush rose to Quistis' cheeks, and she nodded. But Aerith got a feeling that Quistis would continue to call King Mickey 'his majesty' in her head.

They had a brief moment where all of the Heartless were gone. Quistis sent up Curagas for all of them.

"Thank you," Aerith said.

"Gee, thanks!" King Mickey said.

Yuffie gave Quistis a thumb's up. Which Quistis knew to take as a sort of thanks. Quistis had been around Hollow Bastion for long enough.

"Should we follow them?" Yuffie asked.

Aerith shook her head. "We need to keep this area clear. They've got this. It's a fairly good balance of people."

Quistis nodded.

Yuffie sighed.

Then more Heartless appeared and the argument was dropped. As they fought this round, Aerith was suddenly struck with a very strong feeling of utmost dread. She blinked, what was going on? She searched her feelings and determined that nothing was wrong at the Great Maw. She had strong enough connections to all of the people there to determine that.

Which meant that Zack, Cloud, and Leon were all fine. And probably everyone else there.

The dread she had gotten was more like the dread she got when she knew someone needed healing. She looked around at the other three, but only King Mickey looked a little worried, and he wouldn't meet her gaze. She didn't think it was anything personal. He was probably trying to ignore the feeling as well. Aerith didn't doubt he felt it.

Aerith tried to convince herself that between all of the people there, they would be fine. Aqua was very skilled with magic. Sora, Kairi, and Riku always looked out for each other. Namine and Xion, too. Even Cid knew some magic in a pinch.

The feeling went away, which meant someone took care of it.

She didn't need to go.

She needed to stay here and do her part.

This wasn't like the last big battle (The Battle at Castle Oblivion) she had fought where she could move freely around the battlefield and it wouldn't matter about the enemies because Xehanort was just summoning more and more of them anyway.

Here, they needed to stay in strategic places to keep paths clear.

Finally, she convinced herself that everything was going to be okay. She went back to fighting the Heartless.

"Everyone get yourselves up off of the ground," Quistis said. "I'm going to try a spell."

Aerith immediately cast Float on herself. The King did likewise.

"I don't know Float!" Yuffie grumbled.

Aerith got Yuffie up. Before the Poolers, Aerith had never used that spell. However, since the advent of the Poolers and other Heartless like them, Aerith had gotten Rinoa and Quistis to help her refine that spell. It was immensely effective. It would also serve as protection against whatever Quistis was going to try and do.

Aerith didn't look down, it was disconcerting. It felt as if the ground was beneath her feet and she was able to move around with no impediments, but it looked so weird.

Quistis began the spell-casting and Aerith recognized what it was. Apocalypse. The sigils on the ground gave it away. No wonder Quistis wanted them all off the ground. Zack occasionally used the attack. He, too, was good about warning whoever he was with beforehand. Light poured outwards from the sigils. It pulled together and then slammed back down into the Heartless on the ground, killing all in a several yard radius.

"Thanks for the warning," King Mickey said.

"Of course," Quistis replied. "Not warning you would be rude."

They were able to get rid of that round of Heartless easily after that. However, they had less of a break between that round and the next round.

"How long do we have to keep this up?" Yuffie asked.

"Until they come back," Aerith said. "Even if the Heartless stop appearing, we stay here until the others come back."

Yuffie sighed, but Aerith ignored it. Rather, she focused on getting rid of the Poolers before they could become bothersome. Poolers could potentially be some of the most dangerous Heartless, with their propensity for dragging someone into the Realm of Darkness. It was their sole purpose. Aerith put priority on them when fighting multiple types.

"Do you think Sora will have to go into the computer again?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know," Aerith said. "It depends on how the program works."

Aerith honestly had no clue about that. She would not be surprised either way. There was a possibility it could all work without Sora needing to do any extra fighting in Space Paranoids, but there was also a possibility where he might need to fight in Space Paranoids to even get to the program. Aerith couldn't be sure.

Getting rid of that round of Heartless seemed easier than the last several rounds. Less Heartless appeared during the battle. Aerith had grown used to over the months where she would start to fight a small group of Heartless that only grew larger and larger as she fought it, like fighting a Hydra, until someone could get rid of all the remaining ones before they could call more friends. This round didn't appear to be calling for backup. The original Heartless that appeared were the ones causing trouble until they were gone.

And then they were gone.

King Mickey sent out the Curagas.

Then they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No more Heartless appeared.

Aerith walked the distance of the Postern. Still no Heartless appeared.

"This is weird," Yuffie said.

"I agree," Aerith said.

She wrinkled up her nose as she felt a tug in the back of her mind. Something was amiss and she couldn't be sure if it were related to the Heartless or not. She didn't think it was. It felt different, more potent, more poisonous—if she had to put a word to it.

She looked at Yuffie. Yuffie was pacing the Postern just as Aerith was, shuriken still out, waiting for more Heartless. Quistis stood still, her whip poised to attack enemies that did not come.

This time, the King met her gaze. They exchanged worried glances. Something was up and they didn't know what.

But Aerith would bet that Sora was in the middle of it.

She tried to see if she could sense anything more about it, but she couldn't pick up anything outside of the massive levels of darkness that had been plaguing Hollow Bastion for months. Nothing felt any different besides that initial tug.

This, too, was slightly worrisome.

But there was nothing she could do just yet. She would just have to wait and see.

She was careful not to let Yuffie pick up on the idea that something may be wrong. She didn't want Yuffie to try and snoop around until Aerith was sure. And chances were, by the time Aerith was sure, there wouldn't be any need for snooping.

They began to relax as no more Heartless appeared. King Mickey even banished his Keyblade to discourage more from showing up. Aerith loosened her grip on her staff, Yuffie's shuriken rested lazily over her shoulder. It was eerily quiet.

"Do you suppose everywhere else has gone quiet, too?" Quistis asked.

Aerith shrugged. "I don't know."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they activated the DTP," King Mickey said.

"I think I may agree with you," Aerith said.

"So now we wait more?" Yuffie asked.

"Yes, now we wait more."

"Does activating the DTP mean we won't have any Heartless at all anymore?" Yuffie asked.

"I think it means we'll go back to normal levels," Aerith said.

"I don't know what normal levels are anymore," Yuffie said, blowing her bangs out of her face.

"Well, most Worlds have some small level of Heartless on them now, because of Xehanort's meddlin'. I don't think that's gonna change," the King said.

"Right," Yuffie said.

They waited some more. Then they heard footsteps.

Sora was the first one out of the castle, an angry scowl on his face. Kairi and Riku flanked him, their faces mixed with worry and anger. Xion, Axel, and Kuin were next. Then Ienzo with the two Vexen Replicas. Then Aqua and Namine with Cid.

The King caught her gaze again and gave a slight nod. Aerith was about to open her mouth to ask what all had happened, but Cid beat her to it.

"We'll explain later," he called. "In short, the program's been activated. Bu' there's other news that everyone needs teh hear, not just you guys."

Aerith nodded. So something was amiss.

"It's quiet," Xion said.

"The program seems to be working," the King said.

"It is working," Ienzo said. "The Heartless that the DCP was putting out will dwindle. It should all go back to normal."

"See?" Aerith said. "Just as I was saying. Let's regroup with the others. It sounds like we need to discuss some things. Perhaps lunch is in order, as well?"

"I'm starving," Namine said quietly.

Aerith watched her and Riku exchange glances and wondered what had happened.

"We're going to need to do something about that corridor," Pi mused. "It's not safe for most people to travel through."

"Once the darkness dissipates, it will help," Namine said. "But unfortunately, I think I'm the one who's going to have to deal with the memories floating around."

"Perhaps I could create a Program," 34 said. "Surely you have better things to do than to unstring leftover memories, Miss Namine."

Namine snorted. "You have no idea."

Aerith cocked her head to one side, confused.

"There's a hallway in there tha's full of memories," Cid said quietly. "Leftover from Xehanort's Replica Program. I dunno the specifics, but it's not a pretty sight for anyone susceptible to tha' sorta thin'."

"Mmm," Aerith replied.

"Let's work our way back to the Borough," Riku said. "I'm liking this idea of food."

"The sooner we get there, the better," Aerith said. "I wasn't sure how long this would take, so nothing is prepped."

"Jus' so lon' as Merlin don' try an' help, it'll be fine," Cid grumbled.

As much as Aerith wished Cid and Merlin wouldn't be so hard on each other, Aerith could agree with that one.


	7. Did someone say food?

**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

* * *

_Great Maw: Namine, Age 17_

There were still a lot of Heartless in the Great Maw, despite how many people had stayed and fought.

"Ever get the feeling you've done this before?" Cloud asked.

"All the time," was Leon's response.

Sora was clearly still upset about Xehanort, and he had every right to be. Namine was upset, too, but she wasn't dealing with it at that moment. There were other things to take care of, like the present Heartless.

"Hey," Riku said, looking at Sora. "Let's see who can kill 100 Heartless first, yeah?"

Sora looked around and sighed. But then he nodded. "Okay."

Roxas, who had just come over to join them, interjected, "What is this? I want in!"

"First person to kill 100 Heartless," Riku said.

"Do we win or something?" Roxas asked.

"Nah, just a contest. You win the pride of winning."

Roxas shrugged. "Okay."

"You in?"

"Sure!"

So the three of them started racing to see who could kill 100 Heartless first. Namine stuck close to them, but far enough away that she couldn't be considered to be helping anyone. She also made sure only to get Heartless with her knife when they got close enough, for extra measure. There was no way she could keep up with all three of their tallies, so she didn't bother.

Roxas was counting aloud, so it was easy to follow his. Sora and Riku counted silently.

Sora did count "100!" out loud, but unfortunately, at that very same moment, Roxas swiped through six other Heartless, bringing his tally up to 103. As the two of them did this, Riku (whom Namine was beginning to think hadn't even been counting) simply said "99, 100" as he casually killed two Shadows.

"That was fun," Roxas said. He offered a hand out to Sora for a high-five. "Good one!"

"Yeah," Sora said, actually smiling as he high-fived Roxas.

"Everything okay?" Roxas asked, cocking his head to one side.

"We'll explain later," Riku said.

"Okay then," Roxas said, shrugging. He then charged back off into battle.

"I'm going to go for Limit, yeah?" Sora asked, looking at Xion.

"Sure, go for it," Xion replied with a shrug.

Sora Drove, but into Anti, taking both Xion and Roxas with him.

Namine pursed her lips, she'd been wondering if and when that was going to happen. Namine was interested in the darkness inside everyone's hearts, particularly when it could at any point be knocked out of balance. Sora's could be given the increase of darkness in the area. Namine was not surprised in the slightest that Sora had gotten Anti.

Anti-Sora launched himself at the Heartless, except he didn't appear to be attacking them, more like playing with them.

"That doesn't look very effective," Yuffie said.

"It's not," was Leon's reply.

"I'm going to go…" Riku began, rolling his eyes.

He didn't need to finish the sentence.

"Go on," Namine told him. "I'll be fine."

So Riku went off after Sora, trying (as usual) to keep Sora out of trouble.

Namine found herself near Rinoa and it only took her a little bit of effort to be alongside her. Rinoa was on the ground fighting, as opposed to up in the air. She was also using a combination of her blaster edge and magic.

Namine decided that she wasn't too keen on doing anything with memories at the moment. That stint in the castle with the darkness memories had not helped. So, she decided that she'd try her hand at magic. She'd be using up ethers either way and she remembered Aerith saying that when it came to battles like this, Aerith only used mega-ethers. Which meant that so long as Namine was in the vicinity of Aerith (which she was), she wouldn't have to worry as much about that.

She started off with just simple stuff like Fira and Blizzara, alternating so as to keep her hands from burning or freezing respectively.

"No stuff with the memories, huh?" Rinoa asked, shooting off her blaster edge.

Namine shook her head. "Something back at the castle happened and I'm a little worn out from it. Memories are like that. So I'm sticking with this sort of thing."

Rinoa nodded and cast Meltdown on a large area of Heartless.

"How do you get around burning or freezing your hands?" Namine asked.

Rinoa waggled her fingers and Namine noted the gloves. "They're bewitched," Rinoa said. "But when I forget them, I mostly just deal with it. I think I've gotten used to the cold, the burning, the tingling, all that sort of thing. I don't have an option of channeling magic in its pure form via my weapon. I can junction some stuff, but that's no different than, what was it called? Fire Raid? Or something like that."

Namine nodded.

"You, however, have got a knife that you can channel magic through," Rinoa said, gesturing to Namine's knife.

"How?" Namine asked.

Rinoa bit her lip. "I think of it as casting the spell not through your hands, but through the weapon," she said after a bit.

Namine thought about this for a moment, trying to see how that would work. Then she aimed her knife at a nearby Mega-Shadow and cast Fira again.

"Hey!" she exclaimed as the ball of fire exploded on the Heartless. "It worked!"

Rinoa smiled. "Awesome!"

"It's like having a magic wand," Namine mused.

"Yeah, something like that."

They continued on for a bit, Namine using primarily Fira and Blizzara through the knife and Rinoa alternating through a vast arsenal of spells. The one time Namine cast Cura, she didn't even use the knife because Cura didn't bother her. Neither did Holy, now that she thought about it.

"I'm going to go help Squall with something," Rinoa said after a bit.

"Go for it," Namine told her. They'd ended up fairly close to Aerith and Yuffie, so Namine figured she'd just go join them.

Rinoa smiled and flew off. Namine ran through the Heartless to get to Aerith and Yuffie.

"Don't want to be alone?" Yuffie asked.

"Leon does always talk about having a fighting buddy," Aerith said.

Yuffie shrugged and chucked her shuriken again. Aerith was doing something similar to what Namine was doing, which was casting magic with the occasional whack of the staff.

Now as Namine fought, she began thinking a lot about how certain people would be affected by Xehanort's return. Sure, people like Sora and Riku were angry about it—Namine was angry herself—but what about people who had pledged their lives to getting rid of him? Aqua, who had sworn that she'd rid the Worlds of Xehanort so he couldn't harm her friends any longer? Or Kuin, who was Worlds-bent on killing Xehanort, partially for revenge on her people, but partially because he was a danger to all people?

What about people like Aerith and Yuffie, who had seen their World torn apart time and time again because of Xehanort's machinations? Hollow Bastion had been plunged into darkness nearly three times. Twice in Namine's memory.

Most of the people out here fighting today didn't even know yet. Namine knew it wouldn't be good to tell them until after this mission was complete. One thing at a time. Namine also knew that several people were suspicious. Kuin was suspicious, Aqua was suspicious, Aerith and King Mickey surely knew that something was up. And Sora's obvious anger was making other people notice.

Xehanort had said that he was able to return because some people still harbored him in their hearts. Who, though? Finding that out was something Namine _couldn't _do. Was he referring to people like Larxene and Marluxia? Former Organization members? Or was this on the level of Terra?

Or, Worlds forbid, _Riku_.

Neither Aerith nor Yuffie seemed inclined to talk much while they fought, which meant Namine was left alone with her thoughts. There was a part of her that wanted to say something just to keep her mind off of things, but she'd inevitably say something about Xehanort and she was trying really hard to avoid that…

_You're thinking hard, _Kairi mused.

_I… I know. _Namine responded.

_Xehanort?_

_ Yeah._

_ Ugh._

_ Yeah._

"You use magic a lot, don't you?" Yuffie asked.

"Um, I'm starting to," Namine replied.

"Nothing wrong with that," Aerith said. "You keep a stock of ethers?"

Namine nodded. "Especially after that Neverland incident."

Aerith would remember that, possibly better than Namine did. Namine was aware that she had overexerted herself with shattering memories, that a simple Cure had made her completely useless. Riku had brought her first to Castle Oblivion, but the Vexen Replicas there had told him that she probably could just use an Elixir, which had caused him to bring her to Aerith. Aerith and Rinoa had deduced that she'd let her magic get too low.

But Namine only remembered bits and pieces of that.

"Is it just me, or do we have less Heartless?" Yuffie asked.

"We do," Namine answered.

"The Program is working!" Aerith said, smiling.

"We don't have any new Heartless spawning," Namine said.

"Oh, that is just wonderful," Aerith said.

Namine couldn't be happy, not with the knowledge about Xehanort. But she was going to let Aerith be happy for that bit.

"Hey!" Tifa shouted. "You guys need some help?

"Weren't you in the Crystal Fissure?" Aerith asked.

"Well, yeah," Tifa replied. "But it was completely empty, so we figured we'd come up and join you guys here, since you've obviously still got Heartless. Did someone get to the computer room?"

"Yeah, Namine went," Yuffie said.

"I actually stayed in the castle corridors," Namine said. "Xion, Sora, and Pi did most of the work as far as running the Program goes."

"Mm," Tifa said.

Namine noticed Terra going off to fight alongside Ven, and Goofy joining up with Sora. 42 sought out 34 and 27 and the three of them doubled the ice efforts.

It wasn't much longer before the Heartless numbers dwindled entirely and soon became nothing at all. As they got rid of the last Heartless (Xion being the one to _actually _get rid of it), they all cheered.

"Here's to a successful mission!" Leon said.

Namine felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Sure, the mission was successful in that the DTP had been activated properly. But in several people's minds, that didn't matter, because Xehanort…

Was being Xehanort.

And he wasn't dying.

Ha. She'd said it.

"What's this I heard about food?" Zack called, his voice rising above the cheering.

"Let's go back and eat!" Aerith answered.

Namine's eyes found Riku's. He gave her a half-hearted smile, but she knew it fell from his face quickly. Even someone who didn't know Riku well could probably tell it fell from his face quickly.

The group started walking back to Aerith's house. They met up with Merlin and Donald along the Ravine Trail. They ran into a total of nine Heartless—all of which were killed quickly and easily. According to Leon and Cid, they were all of the incredibly local variety, and it was not worrisome at all that they even appeared to begin with. Apparently, it was fairly normal for Worlds to have Heartless now, even with their Keyholes sealed. It was just one of the backlashes of Xehanort. Creating yet more evidence that everything was Xehanort's fault.

Namine could not even imagine a life before Heartless. She knew people who could, but she was not one of them.

As they all crowded around Aerith's house once again, everyone started discussing just how this was going to work. Merlin started conjuring up tables as Leon and Cid placed them around the area. The only two houses in the area were Aerith's and Merlin's, so it wasn't like there would be any neighbors to complain. On top of that, many people had taken refuge in other Worlds while the darkness in Hollow Bastion was sorted out.

Aerith recruited the help of Cid and Leon to help cook in her kitchen, while Tifa and Cloud agreed to go help in Merlin's. Everyone else was told to take a seat and rest. Namine nearly sunk down into a chair, not entirely realizing just how tired she was.

"When should we tell them?" Sora asked, sitting down next to her.

"Wait until we've eaten," Namine said.

Sora nodded, then got up to go wander. Thankfully, Kairi noticed this and followed him. Namine sighed and buried her face in her hands. This was all Xehanort's fault.


	8. Making Plans

**Author's Note: **Hey! It's been a few days, but time for another chapter now! Enjoy!

* * *

_Merlin's House: Tifa, Age 24_

It was impossible to ignore the tension present around the area. Despite the DTP being activated, several people were still on-edge. Sora was perhaps the most obvious. Sure, he smiled any time someone could see, but the minute he thought no one was looking, he took on a much more brooding appearance. Cid looked like he was trying very hard to ignore everything. What worried Tifa more, however, were the lines on Aerith's forehead and the fact that her lips were drawn into a slightly thinner line than usual.

Tifa pulled Cloud aside.

"Do you know what's going on?" she asked.

But Cloud only shook his head. "All I know is that the darkness is lessening. Something happened back at the castle and they haven't told us yet. Zack asked Aerith the same question, but she actually doesn't know."

Tifa sighed. "Right."

"I think the plan is to eat first, or at least start eating."

So Tifa's questions about what was going on were going to have to wait.

And they did.

They all sat down at the tables that had been set up. Tifa decided not to question where Merlin pulled them from. Regardless, there were enough seats for everyone to sit comfortably. Tifa was across from Aerith and in between Leon and Cloud.

Mostly there was pasta. It was the quickest and easiest thing to cook that fed the most people. The King had given Aerith munny for food but she'd declined to take it. Tifa saw him hide it in one of Merlin's chairs, where it would inevitably be found and thus used.

"All right," Zack said as everyone had begun to eat. "Can we talk now?"

There were several exchanged glances between Sora, Riku, Namine, and Xion. Kairi and Axel looked pointedly away from them.

Finally, Sora cleared his throat.

"Xehanort's back."

Silence fell across the whole table like a gigantic weight. Tifa could hardly believe what Sora had said, but it was obviously true. People didn't joke about things like that. No one spoke at first, the shock factor was too great.

The first person to speak was one of the Vexen Replicas. "How?" he asked. "I was there. You destroyed him."

"We know," Sora said. "But he…" he groaned and looked at Xion.

"He's not quite complete," Xion said. "He said he's a remnant. He exists because there are still people that hold a part of him in their heart."

"He will continue to appear as long as he still resides in people's hearts," Kairi added.

"He's also going to try and make a new vessel for himself," Riku said.

"He specifically said 'infiltrate new hearts until he was reborn complete'," Xion said.

"Ew!" Yuffie spat.

"How are we not rid of him?" Tifa asked, astonished.

"To be honest, I'm not actually surprised," Leon said. "That man just keeps returning and returning."

"Will we ever be rid of him?" Yuffie groaned.

No one could answer that question.

"I need to go speak with Master Yen Sid," Mickey said.

"I am coming with you," Aqua said. Tifa noticed that Aqua was looking worriedly between Terra and Ven.

"We need to figure out who might still have Xehanort in their hearts," Sora said. "And at the very least, get rid of the Xehanort part."

"We will also need to be on the lookout for the remnant or remnants trying to use us as vessels," Riku added. "We are all targets."

"Um, guys," Tifa said. "Perhaps we should stop. This does technically count as battle planning at the dinner table."

Tifa looked right at Aerith as she said this.

"No, it's okay," Aerith said, her voice hollow. "We can do this now. We may not have the time to wait."

Tifa pursed her lips. That thought was scarily accurate.

"So we should check around The World that Never Was again," Axel said. "He could be trying to use that as a base."

"I don't know, there was a lot of darkness there," Roxas said. "We were just there yesterday."

"He may not be affected by the darkness like the rest of us are," Namine said.

"I suppose that's true."

"We will need to increase security at Castle Oblivion, he may want to get in there as well," said a different Vexen Replica.

"I'm going to go out and try and find him, the parts of him, whatever," Sora said.

"Who do you think is responsible for this?" asked still yet a different Vexen Replica.

"It could be you," said the first Vexen Replica, looking at Ienzo.

"It's not me," Ienzo said, raising an eyebrow slightly. He could have been raising both, but his hair covered the other eye completely.

"How can we be sure?" accused the same Vexen Replica, Tifa thought it might be 42, he had a particular tone of voice.

"If it were me," Ienzo said, setting his fork down and folding his hands across the table. "I could have—and would have—sabotaged you. I could have done it a hundred times. I could have simply not joined this mission and watched you fail and be forced to leave as you would not have known that it was the DCP responsible. I could have not given you the access protocols to activate the DTP." He looked at Namine. "I could have left you all in that hallway, paralyzed by the memories."

Namine's eyes went wide and Tifa wondered what else had gone on.

"Out of all the things I could have done, I did none of them. I helped you legitimately work towards saving this World. If I were Xehanort, or working for Xehanort, I would have let this World fall into darkness, because it's better off in his eyes that way, anyway. You might as well accuse Axel."

"Hey! That's rude!" Axel said. "Xehanort may have tempered my darkness, but it's not me."

"I will vouch for Axel," Sora said. "After all this time, he's been working for us."

"Not to mention that Xehanort Replica," Kairi muttered.

"I'll say he's clean, too," Kuin said, but Tifa noticed some contempt in her voice. Which was none of Tifa's business, so she wouldn't ask. "However, I will still say that it could be any of us."

The table exploded in shouts.

"Oi, you watch it!"

"Okay then, mister, if you're so sure it's not you, then give us a reason…"

"I will murder you like I did your maker."

"That's reason enough for me to be suspicious."

"What about _him_? He used to _be _him?"

"I do not appreciate you talking about him like that…"

"I'm right here!"

"In all my years I've never…"

"Why would you even…?"

"Xehanort could be anywhere, we have to assume that…"

"I don't even know the guy, but…"

"Stay out of this, you don't have the place to talk!"

"He tends to go after people multiple times…"

"My heart is _not _weak!"

"Don't make me angry!"

"No seriously, don't make her angry."

"That was uncalled for!"

"You lied to me!"

"Stop!" Tifa shouted, standing up and slamming her hand down on the table. Everyone quieted, though there were still some glares. Some people looked murderous.

"Don't you see? This is what he wants! He wants us to be afraid at be at each other's throats! We just need to trust each other for now."

Cloud looked at her, his eyes wide.

Zack pounded the table. "I couldn't have said it better myself!"

"Tifa is right," the King said, standing as well. "While yes, Xehanort's words are worrisome and frightening, we need to stick together and trust that there will be no backstabbing among us. We need to figure out what our next steps are. I am going to speak with Master Yen Sid."

"We're coming with you," Terra said.

Mickey nodded. "Someone should at least check on The World that Never Was, perhaps a larger group than went yesterday."

"We can do that," Sora said. "We'll be looking for him anyway."

"What about Castle Oblivion?" Roxas asked. "We should check there, too."

"We're going back to Castle Oblivion, anyway," said the quietest of the Vexen Replicas, 27. "We'll holler if we need help."

"Someone will need to stay in Hollow Bastion and make sure things are going right," Rinoa said.

"It will work," Ienzo said, sounding almost bored.

"I think Hollow Bastion's got it covered for now," Leon said. "We've got the people."

"Actually," Cloud said. "I'm going to have to leave. I need to take care of other business."

Tifa sat down slowly. Sephiroth. He meant Sephiroth. "I'm coming, too," she said.

Cloud didn't argue.

"Good luck," Aerith whispered. Tifa smiled at her gratefully.

"It would seem like we're off to a good start," King Mickey said. "I think this is all we can do for now."

"Oh," Ienzo said, reaching into his pocket. "Cid, you'll want to make copies of this."

He tossed a stack of papers across the table towards Cid. Cid picked up the first page and squinted at it.

"Research I found. I know his hiding places. You'll want a copy and so will I."

"I'll ge' righ' on that," Cid muttered.

"Something else," Ienzo said, looking at Sora. "If you're going to the Castle that Never Was, try and see if you can find Xemnas' and Xigbar's journals. Saix's, too. They may contain useful information."

"I've already got Saix's," Axel said. "I just need to look through it."

"You haven't already?" Ienzo asked.

"Some of us take longer to separate research from friendships."

"I question if you ever did."

Axel rolled his eyes. "I'll see if I can get everyone's journals."

"Don't bother looking for mine, it's not there."

"See?" the King said, interrupting before Ienzo and Axel could argue any further. "We have solid plans. Now we just need to put them into place. But I think we need to go home and rest tonight, we've got another long haul ahead of us."

"Hades will be attacking Disney Castle."

Namine's voice was so quiet, one could almost miss it.

"That too," Mickey said, going on to continue what he was saying. But then he paused. "Wait, what?"

Donald's and Goofy's eyes went wide.

"I don't know when, but soon," Namine said. "He has many Nobodies at his disposal."

Mickey sighed. "Then we will have to deal with that as well. I will head straight there after I speak with Master Yen Sid."

"We can go ahead of ya, yer Majesty," Goofy said.

"Thanks, Goofy."

"Anything else?" Donald asked.

Mickey looked around at the table. "Let's eat," he said.

No one had to be told twice. The food had gotten slightly cold, but no one was going to complain. There was too much on their minds still. No one felt like talking about that day's mission, not with thoughts of Xehanort hanging over their heads.

As everyone finished eating, everyone helped clean up. Yuffie even volunteered to do dishes. Cloud went to go help. Merlin got rid of the tables and everything was cleared up.

"I'm going to go make rounds," Leon said. "See how things are going."

"I'll go with you," Rinoa said.

"So will I," Cid said.

"The copies?" Ienzo said.

"Tha's automatic. S'long as Merlin doesn' interfere…"

"I'll watch it," Tifa said.

Ienzo nodded and followed her. So did Pi.

The other three Vexen Replicas set of for Castle Oblivion. Aqua, Terra, Ven, and the King went off to Master Yen Sid. Donald and Goofy set off to Disney Castle. Everyone else seemed content to stay for a bit longer. No one was going to kick them out. Aerith liked the company. Though they wouldn't be able to stay overnight. There certainly weren't enough beds. That was for sure.


	9. Determined to Help

**Author's Note: **Well, I hope everyone's enjoying everything so far. Drop a review if you're interested and stuff!

* * *

_Mysterious Tower, Hollow Bastion, Castle Oblivion, Disney Castle_

"You okay?" Mickey asked, looking at the three.

"I'm all right, just a little shaken."

Aqua's voice _sounded_ shaken.

"I just can't believe he's back," she continued quietly.

"Sadly, it doesn't surprise me," Terra said, equally as quiet. "This is Xehanort we're talking about."

"We'll get him this time, though," Ven said. "Right?"

"Yes," Aqua said. "We will."

They all looked at Mickey. He nodded.

"His time is running out."

xx

"I will kill him," Zack said, his face completely serious.

"Zack," Aerith said, shaking her head. "It's not that simple."

"It is from where I stand. He's a danger to this World, and all the other Worlds. I will kill him."

"He's just going to keep coming back as long as he's harbored in someone's heart."

"Then I'll help. Sora said that's what he was doing, getting rid of the Xehanort part of people's hearts. You don't get it, I'm helping."

Aerith sighed and smiled, both gratefully and still a bit worriedly.

xx

"You told me he was dead!" Kuin hissed.

"If you haven't noticed, we all thought that he was dead," Axel retorted. "He fooled the damn King! But that doesn't change the fact that he's coming back."

"Did you see him?" Kuin asked, frowning.

"No, I wasn't in the room," Axel said nonchalantly. "But I trust Sora, Kairi, and Xion."

Kuin grimaced. "I'm going to have to kill him."

Axel snorted and folded his hands across his chest. "Join the club."

Kuin looked him in the eye, her face serious. "No," she said, her voice practically a growl. "I will have to kill him. I can't trust you all to do it, so I'll do it myself."

Axel gave her a serious face of his own. "Get in line!" he said. "You're not the only one who wants him dead."

Now it was Kuin's turn to snort. "That sort of seriousness doesn't suit you."

Axel glared. "Oh, well then you don't know me. You're not doing this alone, so don't think I'm joking. You can join me, and all of my friends, though. For we are _all _going after him, whether you like it or not. He's pissed a lot of people off by coming back. Or you can go off on your own and try and off him, but the minute you start getting in our way in your quest to be the one to off him, I will not hesitate to clear you out of the way."

"Are you threatening me?" Kuin asked, shocked.

"Maybe," Axel said, his eyes narrowing. "We work as a team now. And I'm not going to mess that up."

"I'm not part of your team."

"I never said you were."

Kuin frowned one last time and left. Axel was perfectly fine with that.

xx

"Can I help out more this time?" Yuffie asked, looking at Cloud.

"Probably," Cloud answered with a shrug. "I don't see why not."

"Yes!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Last time there were extenuating circumstances involving Terra," Tifa said, joining them in the kitchen. "But I think this time, all of us are going to help get rid of him."

"Oh boy, I can't wait until that stinky-face is gone for good!"

"I feel like I should tell her not to be rude," Cloud mused.

Tifa shrugged. "It's a thing. Have you heard Riku? Apparently, he really does smell."

"Like darkness!" Yuffie said.

Cloud's nose twitched.

Tifa laughed.

xx

"I think I could take him," Rinoa mused, sending her blaster edge out at a Heartless farther away.

"Rinoa," Leon said, stabbing a different Heartless. "He keeps coming back."

"Yeah," Cid said. "An' younger and younger every time!"

Rinoa snorted. "I've fought three different Sorceresses, through time, even! This'll be nothing."

Leon sighed. "Rinoa, Xehanort's been causing problems for probably his entire life. And he's older than he looks!"

Rinoa shrugged. "Okay, so maybe I can't take him on my own. But I'll help."

"Tha's all we need!" Cid said.

"In other news, I think I'll be taking a trip back to the castle in the near future," Leon mused.

"Why?" Rinoa asked.

"Well, don't you think it'd be a good idea if we got rid of the machine that creates Heartless? We've got enough things to deal with when they're all purebloods."

"I like this idea," Cid said.

"Mmm, me too! We going to do that now, or later?"

"Maybe not this afternoon, give the DTP longer to run its course," Leon said. "Tomorrow, though."

"Count me in!" Rinoa said.

xx

"It could be me!" Sora said with a groan. "What if it's my fault?"

"Sora, it's not you," Riku assured him. "Trust me. Has Xehanort even tried to go for your heart?"

"Not that I can remember… but… I mean… I was asleep for…"

"Sora," Riku interrupted. "I was half in charge of that, no. Honestly, if anyone has to worry about harboring Xehanort in their hearts, it's me."

"Riku, what will you do if it is you?" Kairi asked.

"I'll figure it out," Riku said with a shrug. Then he looked between Sora and Kairi. "_We'll _figure it out."

xx

"What are they talking about over there?" Xion asked, looking at Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

Namine looked up from her sketchbook and followed Xion's gaze. She cocked her head to one side, listening. "Oh, Sora's convinced it's his fault that Xehanort's returning."

"No way!" Roxas scoffed. "Seriously?"

Namine chuckled. "Right? It's not him."

"But what about Riku?" Xion asked.

Namine was quiet.

"Sorry," Xion said. "That was tactless."

No one said anything for a moment.

"You know," Xion continued. "If I wasn't so certain that it was you that built me, I'd be a bit worried about myself being the cause."

"No, I saw every bit of your memories, you're good," Namine said.

"What about the Vexen Replicas?"

Namine snorted. "Yeah right. They're good. They're all too scared of Xehanort for any one of them to be a problem. We could run into any Vexen Replica on any World and they'd probably be on our side purely because they're not on Xehanort's."

She looked down at the picture and noted that it was of Kuin and Axel arguing.

"Oh, that should be interesting," she mused.

xx

Quistis walked up to Zack and Aerith, hoping she wasn't interrupting anything. Seeing as the two of them acknowledged her, she figured she wasn't.

She swallowed. "Zell and I will stick around for a bit more," she began. "But then we'll probably head back to our own World. While Xehanort does not have clear ties there, we have had a history with the darkness. And Rinoa will inevitably start worrying about that, and I'm trying to keep her with Squall. So Zell and I will go."

Aerith nodded, smiling because she understood. "Go! Do what you need to do!"

"We'll stay another week then, ish? To ensure that everything with the DTP is going as planned."

"Sounds good to me. I think Cloud wants to leave this afternoon, but I know between Tifa and I, we can convince him to stay through the night at least."

"Yeah," Zack added, snorting. "If he's going to go after Sephiroth, he could use any good bed he can get along the way. Maybe I'll make sure he ends up in Nibelheim or Gongaga…"

xx

"Tomorrow, a group of people should go and help destroy the Heartless creation machine in the castle," Leon said, announcing it to the house.

"Do you need help with that?" Sora asked, perking up. "Because I can help with that."

Roxas batted him on the arm. "We've gotta go to The World That Never Was!" he hissed.

Sora shrugged.

"I'll help," Zack said. He nudged Cloud in the ribs. "If you stay 'till morning, you can help, too!"

Cloud grunted.

"I'll help!" Zell said.

"Send Merlin, he'll mess the whole system up without even tryin'!" Cid said. "Wait, tha' coul' backfire, nevermin'."

"I don't know whether to be offended or flattered!" Merlin scoffed.

"Well, between me, Zack, Zell, Rinoa, and Cid…" Leon began.

"And me!" Yuffie said.

"I'll help," Cloud said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," Leon said. "We'll be good."

xx

Cloud pulled Zack aside.

"I need you to stay here and not come after me," he said.

Zack frowned. "If you're trying to go this alone…" he began.

Cloud shook his head. "Tifa and I are going. We'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'm actually going to make a stop in Nibelheim to say hello to my mother, so unless he intercepts that, I'm not even going to look for him in a while. It's just been a couple weeks and I'm getting itchy."

"You've been around here for two and a half months," Zack said with a shrug. "I get it. I'm getting antsy, too."

"Yeah, but that's the thing," Cloud hissed. "Don't leave! Or if you leave, take Aerith with you on an adventure. Don't leave her!"

"Why?" Zack asked, frowning. "Is something bad going to happen?"

Cloud shrugged. "How should I know? What I do know, is that we're not teenagers anymore, and with Xehanort around again, there's no telling what's going to happen. You love Aerith, right?"

"Yeah," Zack said, with a snort. "Of course."

"Then stick with her."

"You're one to talk," Zack scoffed.

"I'm taking Tifa with me, aren't I?" Cloud asked.

"You make a fair point."

"Aerith wants you around, she's just too nice to say it."

"I like being around her, too, so it works," Zack replied, grinning. "There's certainly enough work here to keep me busy, but I am wanting to go off-World for a bit…"

Cloud frowned.

"I'll take Aerith with me!" Zack said, holding his hands up in defense. "My mom loves it when we come for dinner anyway."

Cloud nodded, satisfied.

xx

"That was rather rude of you," 27 told 42 as they entered Castle Oblivion again. "What you said about Axel."

"Forgive me for being suspicious of him," 42 sneered. "He did kill Master Vexen."

"Perhaps I have just learned to be more trusting," 27 mused.

"The accusation of Ienzo was not much better," 34 said quietly.

"Tch!" 42 scoffed. He attempted to say several things, but nothing came out at all. 42 stormed off to a different part of the castle.

"We should check the security tapes," 27 said, shrugging.

"Yes," 34 agreed.

xx

Donald and Goofy walked up to the Castle. Nothing was amiss.

"Do you think Miss Namine was right about Hades comin' and attackin'?" Goofy asked.

Donald shrugged. "How should I know? The King just wants us here to make sure everyone's safe."

Goofy nodded emphatically. "Well, that's our job."

"Yup!" Donald agreed.


	10. Readying Up

**Author's Note: **Ah, nothing to say but enjoy! Leave a review if you like it!

* * *

_Sora's House: Sora, Age 17_

"_Mom_! Trust me! We'll all be fine!"

Sora's mom frowned. "Forgive me, it's just, I know you go off on a daily basis to deal with darkness around the Worlds…"

"And the Hollow Bastion mission was technically a success," Sora reminded her.

"Yes, but what you're proposing now… you'll be gone for an extended period of time, and… what if something happens!"

Sora rolled his eyes. "Mom, I've done this several times before, once that I don't even remember!"

Sora's mom bit her lip.

"Dear, they're going to do this no matter what," Sora's dad said, in an attempt to placate his worrisome wife.

"Can't somebody else?" she still asked.

"No, Mom, that's the thing, the job that needs to be done, needs a Keyblade. Besides, Xehanort will probably come for us if we don't go to him. And I, for one, don't want him here."

"Will you be helping?" Sora's dad asked, looking at Roxas.

"Of course," Roxas said. "I've done it once, and I'll do it again. I'll keep doing it until the Worlds are rid of Xehanort. He needs to not be around anymore."

Sora's mom sighed. "I just don't want anything to happen to you."

"Trust me, Mom, nothing's going to happen. Well, I mean, things are going to happen, but nothing bad."

"There's so many of us, it shouldn't be a problem," Roxas said, not using as many absolutes as Sora was. "But Sora's right, this job requires a Keyblade. And we constitute as most of the Keyblade Wielders."

Sora frowned. He just wished his mom would understand. Granted, his dad was right, they were all going to go no matter what—lest Xehanort go for Destiny Islands. Better they take the battle to him, rather than wait for it to come to them. Not to mention, they'd have to go searching for the people who has part of Xehanort in their hearts; people who probably weren't going to come looking for them. By the time Xehanort came to Destiny Islands, he'd be more powerful and more of a problem. Sora wasn't going to stick his head in the sand. He was never one to do that.

"There really is no stopping you, is there?" Sora's mom asked.

"No, Mom, there's not."

She sighed again.

"Look, we're going to be around for a day or so before we leave. So we can spend some time together. But we can't afford to put this off."

"We really can't," Roxas added.

"You boys be careful," Sora's dad said. "And you take care of the girls, since I'm sure they're going with you."

Roxas snorted. "Oh, they are. But I don't think it's just a matter of us taking care of them. They'll be taking care of us as well."

Sora snickered. He'd heard the stories of what happened a couple of days ago at The World that Never Was.

"Well, take care of each other," Sora's dad amended.

"We will," Sora and Roxas said in unison.

xx

_The Mayor's House: Namine_

"So, you're not worried about us going?" Kairi asked.

"Well, of course we're worried," Kairi's mom said.

"But we know that this is something that needs to get done and you guys are the ones for the job," Kairi's dad added.

"All we really ask is that you be careful," Kairi's mom said.

"Oh, we will be," Kairi said.

"As well as we can," Namine added quietly.

They all heard her though. They'd gotten used to her quiet additions.

"Do you have any thoughts as to who might be responsible for the Xehanort Remnants?" Kairi's dad asked. Clearly, the business about them going was settled, so he was going to move onto other things.

"There were a couple of names tossed around," Kairi said, carefully avoiding whose names those names were. "But nothing definitive yet. That's why we're going back to The World that Never Was, to see if we can learn anything there."

"Or, that's the plan anyway," Namine said.

Kairi's parents both looked at her quizzically.

"Sometimes plans change," Namine said.

_Hades, _she thought.

Kairi did not outwardly acknowledge that thought, but Namine was 97% certain she'd heard it. Namine'd drawn the siege on Disney Castle just yesterday—which meant it was close. All Hades had to do was make the decision to go forward. But until he did that, the plan was still to go to The World that Never Was.

Namine wondered how that would go, considering the place reeked of darkness. She was figuring they'd need to go straight to the Hall of Bedrooms, if they could manage that. If they couldn't get there, or at least somewhere close in order to fight their way there, they might just have to consider the World lost. Xion and Axel both knew where the computer room was there, so they might be able to run that World's version of the DTP as well. Hopefully.

The Vexen Replicas had already done that in Castle Oblivion, so there were no worries there.

"How long do you anticipate being gone?" Kairi's mom asked.

"Not sure yet," Kairi said. "We have to find everyone who may potentially have a part of Xehanort in their hearts and deal with them, plus probably deal with the Remnants themselves on the way."

"And, Worlds forbid, anyone who he actually makes a vessel of," Namine added.

Kairi grimaced. "That too."

"Sounds involved," Kairi's dad said.

"It's Xehanort, there's no other word for it," Namine said.

"Well put."

"When do you intend to leave?" Kairi's mom asked.

"Tomorrow," Kairi answered. "Unless something major changes."

"Good luck," Kairi's dad said. "And, of course, be careful!"

Kairi and Namine both nodded.

_How likely is it that plans will change? _Kairi asked.

_Not sure, _Namine replied.

xx

_Riku's House: Riku_

Riku and Xion explained the whole battle getting to the castle, how they had to fight the Heartless just to get there, but there were even more Heartless inside. Riku wanted to gloss over the hallway with the memories, but Xion, for some reason, wanted to talk about it, so he let her tell that part. Then he explained what happened up until Ansem's study, including Ienzo poking around and finding some potentially helpful research. Xion then detailed activating the DTP. And then they got to tell about Xehanort. How he was only a remnant at the moment, but it was only a matter of time before he tried to become something more.

"I didn't see him myself Mom," Riku began. "But…"

"I did," Xion interrupted, looking Riku's mom in the eye. "He was every bit as real as I am."

Riku raised his eyebrows. Sometimes he felt proud that Xion had finally accepted that she was a real person.

"And he's every bit determined to come back fully," Xion continued, her nose wrinkling. "First of all, he said it, and second of all, I'd be surprised if he wasn't intending to come back."

Riku's mom sighed. "Of course."

"So, yeah, we'll have to go deal with him," Riku finished, almost lamely.

"I'm not surprised in the slightest. When are you going?"

"Tomorrow," Riku said. "Everyone determined that it would be best to at least get _some _rest. Some of us have been going pretty hard over the past couple of days."

Riku's mom raised an eyebrow.

"Look, we _had _to deal with The World that Never Was, and we have to go back," Riku said, defending himself.

"Sometimes, I think you push yourselves too hard," Riku's mom mused.

"I…" Riku began, but he couldn't finish that sentence, not really.

Riku's mom smiled, her eyes crinkling at the sides.

"We'll be careful," Xion said. "Of course. I'll make sure they all get enough sleep."

Riku snorted.

Xion whacked him on the arm, playfully. "Get over the fact that I need less sleep than the rest of you."

Riku rolled his eyes.

Xion raised an eyebrow, then crossed her arms smugly.

Riku's mom smiled. "Well, you all take care of each other, it's my duty as a mother to say that. That, and be careful."

"Of course," Riku and Xion answered simultaneously.

"And, I suppose take as much time as you need," she continued. "Don't rush through something like this. I think we'd all be happy to hear that he's actually gone for good. And one last thing…"

Riku and Xion looked at her.

"Come home."

The way she said it made it seem like there was a possibility that someone wouldn't. Riku had intentionally avoided the fact that there was such a possibility. In his mind, they were all going to make it—because of course they did.

He went over and hugged his mom tight.

"We will," he said. "I promise."

xx

_Destiny Islands Hotel: Axel, Age "23"_

He'd been putting this off for a while, reading Saix's journal. But now there was a reason to read it—more than just for his own odd desires. It could contain information about how Xehanort had rigged the Remnants.

Sighing, he sat down on the bed and pulled the journal out.

He was only slightly surprised to see that Saix's journal managed to date all the way back to their early days in the Organization. Axel had needed to get a second one, once. He had both of them, still, as a reminder of days past, he supposed. But, somehow, Saix had managed to keep it all in one journal.

Axel noted how the first several years were full of carefully-worded entries. Most of them were lies. Those were the days when Saix and Axel were still a team, trying to figure out the Organization's intentions and overthrow it. Axel had simply only written about missions. Saix, it would appear, had made up false entries to throw off suspicion in the event that Xemnas had been reading.

But then came a very distinct change in the entries and Axel knew exactly what it was that had brought it about. Axel had cleared a path and Saix had gotten so close to learning something important and Xemnas had caught them. Saix had been branded for it. Axel had been stuck doing the icky jobs ever since. Saix still somewhat weeded out jobs that Axel wouldn't want to do in a way to subliminally keep up the work they'd started. Axel remembered Saix being just as proud as he was when he'd brought in Larxene.

The journal entries there had been a little angry, because Saix found himself unable to rebel. There was a lot of resolutions to change things. And then came the information that Axel needed to start paying attention to. Stuff about Castle Oblivion—how Xemnas desperately wanted it for reasons that no one could explain. Vexen's Replica Program and how it was the perfect in to get to the place.

And then Roxas had come. Within a week, so had Xion.

Axel grew angry when Saix referred to Xion as an 'it'. He had known from the beginning that she was a Replica. He, Vexen, Xemnas, and Xigbar were the only ones. Marluxia had been told to keep an eye on Sora. Talk of things going on in Castle Oblivion, most of which Axel was able to skip over, having been the one reporting to Saix. Then came the entry where Saix mentioned that things had gone wrong in Castle Oblivion. Axel snorted. No duh. Was that regret that Axel might be among the lost? Axel raised an eyebrow, amused.

Then, Saix's journal entries began to become obsessed with the creation of Kingdom Hearts, as Saix had clearly bought into the idea that the artificial Kingdom Hearts would restore him or something like that. Axel snorted. That was a bunch of baloney.

As he read entry after entry about that and how Roxas and Xion were helping to complete it, part of Xemnas' plans, he began to think that there was no point in reading through this at all. Clearly, the only plan Saix had been privy to was the one regarding Roxas, Xion, and Kingdom Hearts—as those three topics had clearly all been interrelated. Axel grimaced as Saix wondered why Xemnas would even want to keep Xion because in his eyes, she was broken. That entry made him want to spit and left an unsettling feeling in his gut. But he kept reading, hoping he'd come across something good. Saix suspected Roxas and Axel had been up to something during the time when they'd been looking for Xion—clearly they had not been as subtle as they'd originally thought. Saix also spent a lot of time questioning Axel's motives.

"Funny, my old friend," Axel mused. "I spent a lot of time thinking the same about you."


	11. Change of Plans

**Author's Note: **Oh hey! Have another chapter! Enjoy!

* * *

_Mysterious Tower: Terra, Age "22"_

"You gave your star shard to Donald and Goofy, didn't you, Mickey?" Aqua asked.

Mickey nodded.

"How were you planning on getting home?" Aqua asked, laughter in her voice.

"I s'pose I hadn't thought that far ahead," Mickey replied, laughing.

"How about we give you a lift?" Terra suggested.

"Gosh! Would you guys?"

"Sure!" Ven answered. "That's what friends are for!"

Aqua pulled out the star shard. The four of them grabbed each other's hands, all grinning despite the day's events.

The talk with Master Yen Sid went completely predictably. By the time they'd told him about Xehanort's return, he was already aware of it, but about the time he was going to start warning people, Sora had already done the job. He'd made the same conclusions as the rest of them had. They would need to track down the people with Xehanort still in their hearts and eliminate all traces of Xehanort before any of the Remnants had a chance to make a vessel out of someone. In the event that such a thing did happen, they would have to take down the vessel in addition to everything else. But, unfortunately, as long as someone still had Xehanort in their heart, the process would repeat again and again. Likely, it was going to be a long and tedious process. But Master Yen Sid had faith in everyone.

They arrived at Disney Castle and Terra could smell the darkness.

"Oh no!" Mickey breathed.

Dusks and Creepers surrounded the Castle. Some Heartless had joined as well, drawn to the power.

Hades was laying siege.

Terra summoned his Keyblade, finally free of all but one crack. Aqua's had a crack in hers, too, though she didn't seem particularly bothered by it. She and Ven had also summoned their Keyblades.

"Let's fight this!" Aqua said.

"Go on ahead!" Mickey replied. "I'm going to call in some more help."

"Yer Majesty!" Goofy called, running up to them. "I'm sorry I didn't call ya! It was next on my list!"

"How long has this been going on?" Mickey asked.

"Just the Dusks and the Heartless, sir," Goofy said, saluting. "Maybe ten minutes?"

Mickey nodded. He turned back to Terra, Aqua, and Ven.

"You guys willing to help?"

"Of course!" Aqua said.

Ven grinned. Terra only nodded.

Mickey nodded. "Then let's do what Aqua said," he said. "I'll join you in just a minute. First, I need to call in help. Then I need to check on Minnie."

"Her Majesty is doin' just fine," Goofy said, sounding a bit awe-struck.

Terra looked around and saw a pillar of light erupt not too far off.

"She ain't too happy!" Goofy continued.

"Well, neither am I," Mickey said.

That was all Terra needed to run off and start attacking the oncoming enemies. He wondered how Namine had known this was coming so fast.

xx

_Sora's Room: Sora_

"Hello?" Sora asked, picking up the phone.

"Sora, I hate to bother you…"

"Oh! Your Majesty! What can I help with?"

"Hades is attacking."

"Right!" Sora said, his eyes going wide. "Gimme a bit to round everyone up, but we'll be right there!"

"Thanks!"

Sora dove across the hallway the minute he'd hung up the phone. Roxas was lounging on his bed, reading a magazine.

"We have to go!" Sora said. "Disney Castle!"

Roxas was already sitting up and putting the magazine down. He flashed Sora a grin.

"Bag's already packed," he said, kicking the duffel at the foot of his bed.

Sora smiled. "Excellent, mine's almost ready, too."

Sora kept a bag nearly packed all the time these days. Given how they'd all been planning on taking out the Remnants fairly soon, it was more packed than usual. All he needed was his toothbrush.

"We need to tell the others," he said.

"I'll go tell Xion and Riku, if you get Kairi and Namine," Roxas said, pulling on his shoes.

Sora nodded and ran back to his room. He made sure that everything was in order, grabbed his toothbrush, and headed downstairs.

"We've gotta leave early," he said, looking at his parents in the living room. His mom's face fell. Sora sighed. "I'm really sorry," he said. "But the King needs our help, and we probably won't stop back here."

"We understand," Sora's dad said.

"Be careful!" his mom said.

"Yeah," Sora said. He hugged both of his parents, then ran out the door.

He arrived at the mayor's house in record time and nearly forgot that he should knock on the door.

"It's open!" Kairi called.

Sora burst in. "We've gotta go!" he said.

Kairi and Namine were both sitting in the front room, bags already packed.

"That's just weird," Sora said, shaking his head.

Namine smiled and tapped her head.

"My parents already know," Kairi said. "Shall we go?"

Sora nodded. "Let's meet up with the others."

Kairi and Namine shouldered their bags and followed Sora out.

"You got your sketchbook?" Kairi asked.

"Would it matter if I didn't? I can summon that now."

"I forget," Kairi replied, laughing. "You only got that edit to your data, how long ago?"

"Just a few days," Namine said, shrugging. "I got tired of leaving it places and constantly losing pencils."

"Do you have your knife?" Sora asked, knowing that her knife was nearly as important.

Namine nodded.

xx

_Riku's House: Xion, Age 16_

"Do you read better upside-down?" Riku's mom asked, coming into the front room.

Xion did her best to shrug, aware of how difficult it was to do in her position. However, she ended up sitting up anyway, because she heard Roxas pounding up the front walk.

Riku's mom went and answered the door.

"So, uh, Hades, and Disney Castle," Roxas said.

"On it," Xion said.

"Pack a bag," he said. He was panting, he had to have sprinted.

"No duh," she said.

"Leaving for a while, then?" Riku's mom asked.

Xion nodded.

"Oi! Riku! We're leaving!" she shouted up the stairs.

"I heard!" he shouted back.

Xion hugged Riku's mom and then ran up the stairs. She threw a few changes of clothes and a few cloaks into her bag, then ran back down. Riku still wasn't ready.

"Here," she said, handing her bag to Roxas. "I'm gonna go tell Axel."

Roxas nodded and shouldered her bag.

Xion bit her lip, contemplating just how long it would take her to run to the hotel.

"Oh, this'll be quicker," she said, a corridor already at her fingertips.

"We're meeting at the beach," Roxas said.

Xion nodded and stepped through the corridor.

"Oi!" Axel said. "I could have been naked."

"Oh hush, Axel, I knew you weren't."

Axel glared at her.

"We're leaving for Disney Castle," she said. "Hades attacked earlier than anyone anticipated."

"Namine mentioned it yesterday," Axel said. "I think that was our final warning."

Xion shrugged. "Yeah, well, pack a bag. We're not coming back here after we're done there."

"Right."

Axel got up off of his bed. He pulled a bag out from under it and emptied nearly the entire contents of his dresser into it. He, like Xion, shoved cloaks into it as well. She noted he also put a journal in there. It wasn't his, it was too well-kept to be his, no offense to him or anything…

"What's that?" she asked.

"Saix's journal," he grunted. "Seeing if there's anything of use in it."

"Is there?"

"Not that I've found yet. At least, nothing useful as far as Xehanort goes."

"Right."

She suspected there might be something that was useful to Axel in it, but she didn't press the issue. Saix was a tough subject for all of them. Xion had mixed feelings toward him herself, considering he never did consider her a person, and that jaded her quite a bit, she wasn't even going to lie. But he had been Axel's friend long ago, and had supposedly changed upon his death.

Axel gestured that they should leave. Xion used the door that time. They could walk.

xx

_Aerith's House: Zack, Age 27_

Everything was quiet, though Zack didn't dare dwell on that thought for too long. The minute he did, they'd end up with Heartless all over the place. It was his luck. But, so far, the DTP seemed to be working.

_And, _a whole group of them had gone that morning and destroyed the Emblem Heartless Creation Machine. So now all they'd have to worry about would be purebloods. Cloud and Tifa had left shortly after that. But things had quieted down.

Leon, Rinoa, and Quistis had done a round and reported that Heartless numbers were down.

So Zack found it completely reasonable to be lounging on the couch, reading a book. It was one of Aerith's—dog-eared and with pages falling out in places, a sign that it was loved. Understandably so, it was a good book.

Most everyone was relaxing in the front room. Even Cid, who usually was in his workshop. Only Yuffie was upstairs.

"Cid," Aerith said. "Why don't you go visit Shera?"

Zack's ears perked up, but he didn't take his eyes off the page in front of him. He recognized that tone of voice…

Cid hadn't caught on, apparently.

"I mean, I'd love teh, bu' we've got loads goin' on here…"

"Honestly, Cid," Aerith continued. "Now's a good a time as any! You've been wanting to test out your new gummi ship! Take Yuffie, get off World. See Disney Castle! It's a good idea, just don't lose track of Yuffie!"

Zack looked around. He fought back a grin when he saw Leon's smirk. Leon knew what Aerith was getting at, too. Rinoa looked a little confused though, so did Quistis and Zell. Zack couldn't help it, he snorted. Quistis and Zell weren't used to Aerith's 'hunches', even after nearly three months of living here. Rinoa hadn't caught onto Aerith's quirks purely because she had so many of her own.

_"This is my Aerith's weirdness, and this is my Rinoa's weirdness," _Leon had told him once.

Yuffie came running down the stairs. "I like this idea!"

Cid raised an eyebrow. "All righ', if yer sure ya'll be fine here."

"We will," Leon said.

Cid grunted and went into his workshop.

"Be ready in five minutes!" he told Yuffie.

"You bet!" Yuffie said.

"Should any of the rest of us be going?" Leon asked, looking at Aerith.

She shook her head. "Cid and Yuffie is all the help they'll need. Besides, then Cid can see Shera. The rest of us can keep an eye on Hollow Bastion for a day or two."

"I still don't get it," Zell said.

"I'll explain later," Leon said.

"Oh!" Rinoa said, catching on. "Hades."

"Mm-hmm," Aerith said, nodding. "Not a battle for all of us, though. Mostly, Cid's guns on that ship will be helpful."

Zack grinned at that. He turned back to the book. He wanted to get off-World, too, but he and Aerith could wait until Cid and Yuffie got back. It was only fair.


	12. Another Battle

**Author's Note: **Hmm... nothing much to say about this. For all of Rar's followers, I know she's posting some great stuff over in Dead Inside. Enjoy all around!

* * *

_Disney Castle: Ven, Age "18"_

Ven, Aqua, and Terra had all split up at the moment. Everyone had split from each other in order to combat the Nobodies and Heartless. There were only Dusks and Creepers, Shadows and Neoshadows, however, those alone in large numbers could be a pest. Which is exactly what they were.

Ven still wasn't fond of Neoshadows in large numbers. He'd rather take on the Dusks and the changing-forms of the Creepers.

Mickey had loads of people coming to help. The castle was surrounded by people from both sides. Hades was yet to be seen.

Strike Raid was supremely successful at the moment, which meant he ended up in moving through Fever Pitch into Cyclone a lot. Also effective. He wanted to go into Wingblade though, because it was just so much fun. Hmm, what would be the easiest way to do that? Grinning, he started casting a lot of Blizzagas.

Diamond Dust. Exactly what he wanted. Then he started spamming Blizzard Edges. The particular enemies he was fighting weren't good fodder for reprisals, so he'd have to go the edge-way. He felt the power surge through him and spread his arms wide as the Keyblades of light surrounded him.

"Come and get it!" he said, smirking. He launched himself at a group of nearby Creepers. Though they all looked different, he knew they were all still creepers. He'd talked to Roxas and Axel and learned the different types of Nobodies, and learned that Creepers tended to take on many different forms. Selecting the blades at random, he started attacking. As he felt the style ending, he grabbed all six blades, jumped into the air, then threw himself down. The two-step explosion got rid of a several foot radius.

"Time to move on, then," he mused. The Nobodies and Heartless were, for the moment, never ending. Not as bad as Hollow Bastion had been, but still pretty bad. Hades was probably only responsible for the Nobodies. Heartless tended to gravitate to where there was power.

Hmm, what to do next? How about something Thunder-related! He started casting a couple of Thundagas, figuring Thunderbolt would be good.

He ended up near a lot of Neoshadows and grimaced. But the Thunder was doing a good job at keeping them at bay. Then he triggered Thunderbolt and stopped worrying so much about the Neoshadows, except where they were so he could target them. He aimed some Thunder Dashes about and grinned when he triggered Sky Climber, he'd forgotten about that. He jumped on the wind current that came from nowhere, putting his Keyblade under him. He rushed at Neoshadow after Neoshadow, attacking them with dash attack after dash attack. Then he spiraled into the ground and the ensuing blast of light took care of a lot more Neoshadows.

Maybe Neoshadows weren't so bad…

Except he couldn't shake his first conscious encounter with them.

Shuddering, he moved over to where there were some Dusks.

He looked around, trying to gauge what everyone else was doing. Aqua and Terra'd had the same idea Ven'd had. Aqua was moving around faster than Ven could see in Ghost Drive. Terra was in the middle of Rockbreaker.

"Sweet," he said.

But the enemies didn't appear to be stopping.

"Well, maybe I should use some Shotlocks," he mused.

He focused on that group of Dusks. Pulse Bomb, it had a high number of locks.

Ha! He got all 20! The ensuing blasts of energy bombs was highly satisfying.

Then came the giant _crash!_

A Twilight Thorn appeared out of the ground. Ven cringed. He hoped no one got hurt by that. As it was, the outside of the castle would need a lot of repair done.

He started running towards that. Aqua and Mickey were also heading toward it. Aqua got there first, but the Twilight Thorn caught her off guard—it threw her up in the air and batted her down to the ground shortly after.

She didn't move.

"Hey!" Ven shouted. "That's my friend there!"

He ran at the Twilight Thorn faster. Someone placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Axel.

"Aim projectiles at its head," Axel said. "You get hurt less."

As he said this, he sent two chakrams at the head.

"When'd you get here?" Ven asked.

"Just arrived," Axel said, grinning.

Aqua coughed. "Axel!" she said.

"Yo!"

Sora came running by. Using what used to be a wall to propel himself upwards, he targeted the head with his blade. Mickey followed suit.

"Oi! I said projectiles!" Axel shouted. "Doesn't anybody ever listen!"

He summoned more chakrams and threw them up there.

"Though, I mean, I s'pose the King can take care of himself…" he muttered.

Another Keyblade came spinning around them, it dealt damage right after the chakrams, then came spinning back. Ven hadn't quite memorized who all had what Keyblade, so he had to turn to see who that belonged to.

"Xion!" he called.

"Hi!" she replied, jumping up to catch her Keyblade mid-air.

"Hades summon this, too?" she asked.

"Looks like it," Aqua said.

Xion rolled her eyes and tossed her Keyblade again.

"Haven't fought one of these in a while," Roxas said, running up. He tossed his Keyblade as well.

"Have I mentioned how I hate these things?" Riku asked, tossing his Keyblade underhand.

"We should help," Aqua said, readying her Keyblade for a toss.

Ven nodded and leaned back to toss his. Making sure it wasn't going to hit anyone else's (throwing left-handed when just about everyone else threw right could lead to difficulties), he tossed it up there. It hit the Twilight Thorn in the head and came back down to him.

"I think we've stunned him!" Axel said.

"Don't speak too soon!" Riku said, aiming Firaga at the head.

Just as he said that, the Twilight Thorn raised Axel up and locked him there. It pulled back an arm, ready to strike.

"That's my friend you've got there!" Roxas growled. He leapt up and blocked the Twilight Thorn's attack. Then he unleashed a quick fury of attacks that had to have been more counter-attack than anything else. "Brace yourself," he said, turning back to Axel.

"Shoot," Axel said.

Roxas butted Axel with the guard of his Keyblade, freeing him from the Twilight Thorn's invisible grasp. They fell to the ground.

Ven turned around to run back a bit, so as to get a better aim at the Twilight Thorn. But as he stepped, he was suddenly surrounded by about a dozen Neoshadows. He backpedalled, but they were behind him, too. He panicked. This wasn't like before where he was already attacking…

"Aqua!" he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut.

Aqua grabbed his hand. He opened his eyes. The Neoshadows were gone.

"Ven! Are you okay?"

Ven nodded. He'd never told Aqua or Terra exactly what Master Xehanort had done, though he'd dropped enough hints that they might be able to put it all together. He only started remembering that stuff after he'd woken up. During his years at the Land of Departure, he never remembered any of that. And he hadn't started encountering Neoshadows until after he'd woken up…

Ven shook his head to clear it.

"Hey!" Aqua shouted.

She moved Ven out of the way and took out a giant Neoshadow as it was leaping for them. She killed that one, but three more appeared. Ven stood there, paralyzed. He couldn't make himself move.

What was with it about Neoshadows that did this to him?

Well, he knew exactly what… Xehanort had purposely made several attack him to get him to fight back, and Ven's thirteen-year-old self hadn't been able to do anything about it.

But this was not then…

But he still couldn't do anything…

Behind him, the Twilight Thorn knocked off part of a wall and it was coming right at them. Aqua was knocked to the ground again. She rolled over and over, avoiding the rest of the shower. Ven was knocked to his knees, but otherwise unhurt.

The Neoshadows advanced.

Another Keyblade came spiraling through.

Terra!

He got rid of the Neoshadows and pulled Aqua up. Then they came running for Ven.

"Are you okay?" Aqua asked.

"I can't fight the Neoshadows," Ven said.

Aqua didn't ask why. She just nodded.

Thankfully, no more Neoshadows were appearing around them. Now it was just Creepers alongside of the Twilight Thorn which was still around.

"Let's pay attention to that," Terra said. "Especially you, Ven."

Ven nodded. He turned back to the Twilight Thorn and tossed his Keyblade. Next time he should charge that with Blizzard or Thunder or something.

Axel was tossing chakram after flaming chakram at the Twilight Thorn's head. He kept rolling around, too, so as not to get picked up again. Riku, using Firaga not to attack, but to propel himself around, was tossing his Keyblade and when his Keyblade wasn't in his hands, sending Fira out at the Twilight Thorn that way. Ven was impressed.

Roxas leapt up at the head and let loose a finisher command, though the Twilight Thorn was still going. That attack drew its attention and it aimed to smack Roxas back. However, Sora beat the Twilight Thorn to it. He knocked Roxas out of the way and they tumbled to the ground. They looked at each other and laughed. Then they got back up and tossed their Keyblades. Ven was so busy watching them, he almost forgot to catch his own blade. He ended up catching it right-handed, then tossed it to his left as he charged it with Thunder and tossed it again.

"Riku, I'm jealous that you can do that!" Xion shouted.

"Practice!" Riku shouted back. "And you know you've done something right when Xehanort copies the attack."

"No way! When was that?"

Riku shrugged. "I don't remember, I just know it happened."

Xion rolled her eyes, charged her blade with Fire and threw it.

The Twilight Thorn grabbed ahold of Sora, but before it could attack, Roxas, Axel, and Xion all worked together to free him.

"Thanks, guys," Sora said.

"Yeah, yeah, I owed you one," Roxas replied, punching Sora's shoulder.

Sora rolled his eyes and the three of them went back to attacking. The Twilight Thorn retaliated with a giant ball of energy, aimed right at Axel.

Axel swore.

Terra ran over there and knocked them both out of the way.

"Hey, thanks!" Axel said.

Terra nodded and tossed his Keyblade.

"Where'd the King go?" Sora asked. "I know I saw him over here."

"He probably figured we have it covered," Riku said. "He's got a whole castle to keep track of at the moment."

"Heh, you can say that again," Roxas said.

"How about no?"

Riku tossed his Keyblade. It nearly hit Ven's in mid-air, but magically, they missed each other.

"Did that just happen, or was there something magical involved in that?" Ven asked.

Riku looked at him and shrugged. "It's the Keyblade, at some point, I stop asking questions."

Riku and Ven caught their Keyblades. Somehow, everyone all had their weapons at once.

"One last attack?" Terra asked.

Everyone nodded.

They all charged their Keyblades with some sort of magic and then tossed them. Ven and Aqua's were charged with Blizzard, so was Riku's and Sora's. Roxas and Xion had both gone for Thunder. Terra had charged his with Fire and it was joined with two of Axel's flaming chakrams.

The Twilight Thorn fell. And they all took a moment to cheer.

"Man, Kairi and Namine missed out," Sora said.

"I think they're having fun of their own," Riku said.

Out of curiosity, Ven looked around. He didn't see Kairi, but he saw Namine surrounded with several blades of light and knew that she and Kairi were doing their own version of Wingblade. Despite not having a Keyblade of her own, Namine controlled the blades well. He contemplated going over and joining them, but right as that thought crossed his mind, he heard maniacal laughter.

Hades had arrived.


	13. Search and Find

**Author's Note: **Last post for a bit. Road Trip! (Unrelated to this entirely :P) Enjoy!

* * *

_Agrabah Desert: Cloud, Age 25_

"Cloud, we are wandering around in the middle of the desert, and for what?" Tifa called out.

Cloud didn't get a chance to respond right away. A bunch of unnamed Heartless had popped up. They were a little more yellow than usual, but Cloud attributed that to the sand more than anything else. They were the shapeless ones that floated around, forming a cloak around a person before they attacked by sucking the energy out of them. Rinoa hated these especially, she called them the Supermassive Possessors. Then there were a couple that looked like gargoyles.

"Those are new," Tifa mused.

They were already attacking. Cloud focused on the Supermassive Possessor first, knowing them to be the greater danger. They were basically resistant to physical attacks, so he had to blast out some Fira to help—only to realize that if they were in Agrabah, they were probably immune to that.

Which they were. Groaning, he cast Blizzara instead.

The gargoyles, at least, could be taken out with Tifa's kicks and punches.

With them gone, Cloud began walking again.

"Cloud, you didn't answer my question," Tifa said.

"Sephiroth," Cloud answered simply.

"You're looking for him this time? Instead of waiting for him to come to you?"

"Call it a hunch."

They'd left the bike back in town, hidden under some wind-torn fabric. Cloud wasn't too worried about it. Somehow, Tifa always managed to get the bike. There were some things he didn't ask questions about. That was one of them.

Wandering around in the desert hadn't been his original plan, but his hunch had led him out there. On the bright side, there would be less people around in the event of Sephiroth showing up. On the downside, it was hard to keep his footing on the sand.

To an outsider, they appeared to be wandering aimlessly in the desert, as Cloud's hunch naturally wasn't going to lead him in a straight direction. But Cloud had a goal, he knew it wasn't aimless. Tifa knew it wasn't aimless, despite the fact that she asked.

Something appeared out in the distance—over a sand dune. Cloud hoped it wasn't a mirage. He knew it wasn't a trick of his mind, he'd dressed specifically for this sort of heat. His face and neck were shielded, he was still wearing his glasses-goggles hybrid that he wore when he drove. Tifa was dressed similarly—though she'd complained earlier that she felt the pants were restricting.

It was still possible it was a trick of the light—he wasn't immune to those.

But as they got closer, it became clear that what he saw was not some mirage. There was definitely a cave there—with the opening in the shape of a giant tiger.

Even better, the sun was starting to set. They'd been out here most of the afternoon.

Tifa jogged a little to match pace with Cloud, rather than walk behind him.

"Is this where we're going?" she asked.

"For now, yes."

By the time they actually reached the cave, only a sliver of sun was peeking over the horizon. Interestingly, there was light inside the cave, still, casting a glow around the entrance.

Cloud stepped in, lowering his hood. Tifa did likewise. She frowned as she combed sand out of her bangs with her fingers. Cloud ran his hands through his hair, knocking sand out of the spikes. He smirked, finding this amusing for some reason. The cave was quiet, but not eerily so.

"So, are we going to explore the cave?"

She didn't sound worried. In fact, she sounded mischievous, like the Tifa he'd known back when they were kids. This made him smile.

"If we run into Sephiroth here, we might not know all the exits, it could be dangerous," he said. For whatever reason, he was only mostly serious, not all the way. For some reason, today felt lighter. He felt more like a kid wanting to go an adventure, rather than a man who was on an adventure he didn't like.

Tifa shrugged. "I'm not too worried about that. We always get out okay, in the end."

She sounded so sure of that.

The chances of meeting Sephiroth were no higher or lower than they usually were. In the event that they did run into Sephiroth, Cloud was careful to condition himself not to assume he'd win. Every time he hyped himself up to finish things once and for all, all that ended up happening was him getting himself massively injured. To the point where there were a couple of times where Tifa'd had to drag his semi-conscious body back to Aerith's for a healing. He wasn't particularly wanting of that today.

They set off into the cave.

"The torches are lit by magic," Tifa said.

"Any idea the type?"

She shook her head.

"Someone's been here before," he observed, nodding at one of the columns. There was charring on it, clearly from a blast of Fire. Cloud wondered if it had been effective, given how his Fira earlier had not.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Sora or one of his friends had been through here," Tifa said.

"Or c: all of the above," Cloud said.

Tifa snickered.

The entrance room only had so much in it and there were only so many places to go.

"What about up?" Tifa suggested, pointing to a ledge.

Cloud backed up a tad, then took a run at it. He scaled the ledge, easily. He turned around, braced himself and then helped Tifa the rest of the way up, since she only made it so far.

"Thanks," she said.

He nodded.

They walked some more and encountered nothing outside of more of those magical torches that lit the way. There weren't even Heartless. It was eerie.

They came to a dead-end. Well, rather, they were standing at an edge and the only way forward… was a downward drop that they couldn't see the bottom.

"I guess we'll have to turn back," Tifa mused, sounding disappointed.

Cloud tried to peer through the darkness, but he saw nothing. It was just… normal darkness. Nothing special. But he still couldn't see a darn thing.

The floor beneath them shook. Cloud grabbed ahold of Tifa's arm and tried to stumble back the way they came. But the cave, it seemed, had other ideas.

They fell.

"Cloud!"

"Tifa!"

They hit the ground and started rolling, Cloud was forced to let go of Tifa. Cloud only rolled so far, his sword slowing his momentum considerably. Tifa was stopped by a pillar not too far off.

Great, how were they going to get out, now? Cloud almost wished for Sephiroth to show up and take him and Tifa someplace else. They could come back and get the bike later…

There were less torches down here. There were enough to see by, but only barely.

"Do you get the feeling the cave is alive?" Tifa said, rubbing her arm where she'd hit the pillar. "Cure!" she muttered.

Cloud's head stopped hurting. He hadn't realized it had been hurting in the first place, he'd been too worried making sure they were okay.

"I'm beginning to wonder," Cloud mused.

"Now what?" she asked.

"We keep walking."

They picked themselves up and started walking in the only direction they could see. Cloud could only hope they'd find an exit. No longer were they exploring. It was fine when they had somewhat of an exit. Now they didn't and that made Cloud uneasy. The childlike sense of wanting an adventure was gone.

It soon became clear that they weren't actually getting any closer to an exit. They were only going farther and farther into the cave. Cloud started getting twitchy. Not because of the cave. But because of Sephiroth.

"He's here," he said quietly.

This was all the warning Tifa needed.

They took careful steps, moving quietly so they could hear Sephiroth's arrival. He did like to make a show, though there were times when he managed to sneak up on them.

"There's more light that way," Tifa said, gesturing to a corridor. "Perhaps it would be best if…"

She didn't need to finish her sentence. Cloud was already walking that way. He liked being able to see.

The light was coming from another giant chamber. And it was reflecting off of the massive amounts of gold in the room. Unfortunately, Sephiroth was there, too. He was standing in the center of the pathway, casually, sword already drawn, as if he'd known that Cloud would come this way.

He probably did.

"Hello, Cloud," he said, smirking.

"Sephiroth," Cloud returned, drawing his sword. Tifa took a fighting stance behind him.

Sephiroth lunged and Cloud did likewise to parry the attack. Tifa stayed out of the way, for the moment.

_ Clang. Cling. Swhwing. _

For a brief moment, the two of them hovered in midair. Sephiroth smirked. Cloud frowned.

They landed. Sephiroth landed cleanly on the path, Cloud narrowly missed landing in a pile of gold.

"Careful," Sephiroth said. "I hear that if you touch any of this treasure, the cave will cause a cave-in that you'll never escape."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Cloud retorted.

Sephiroth only smiled and readied his sword for another attack.

Cloud stood his ground and parried, sending Sephiroth flying backwards. To avoid hitting another pile of gold, Sephiroth sprouted his wing and flew above them.

"Good one," Sephiroth said. "Can you keep that up?"

He flew forward.

_Swring. Clink. Clang._

Cloud was knocked backwards. He couldn't gain his footing in time and tumbled backwards into not a pile of gold, but a pile of gems. Which of course pressed into his back…

The cave began to rumble.

"Clumsy, Cloud," Sephiroth said. "What did I tell you?"

Then rocks started falling from the ceiling.

At this, Sephiroth frowned. "Don't do my job for me!" he growled. He readied his sword once more and lunged at Cloud.

"Rinoa!" Tifa shouted.

She rammed herself into Cloud and the roaring of the cave stopped.

Because they were no longer in the cave.

In fact, they were standing right by where Cloud had left the bike. Tifa cautiously moved some of the fabric and patted the bike affectionately.

"Did you get Rinoa to teleport us?" Cloud asked, finally gaining his bearings. "I mean, I know she can do that sort of thing, but I thought it took a little bit more prep…"

"Nah," Tifa said, grinning. "But Sephiroth can think that. I teleported us myself."

"Wha—? How?"

Tifa shrugged. "Well, it's not really teleportation. It's more like I can form these portals out of light. It's how I get from World to World."

"How long have you been able to do that?"

"Since I first left our World," she replied. "I just don't broadcast it because I don't know how I do it and I know everyone'll ask questions."

"I'd wondered myself," Cloud said. "How you got from place to place. But I suppose I just didn't care enough to ask."

"And that's why I don't mind telling you," Tifa said, pulling the bike out. As she did this, her phone rang.

Cloud moved to prop the bike as she pulled it out of her pocket to answer. Cid had insisted that they all get phones for better communication. Aerith had also been in favor of the idea.

"Hello?" Tifa answered. "Oh hey, Rinoa! … Yes, yes, I know… It was to fool Sephiroth … Yes, yes, we're fine … I promise, if I actually need that sort of help, I'll put my heart into it … Oh?"

This pause was longer than the others.

"She says that if I've managed to set Sephiroth after her, she's not going to hesitate to fight him," she said, looking at Cloud.

"She won't be able to get rid of him," Cloud replied gruffly.

"She knows that."

After a bit more, Tifa hung up the phone.

"Rinoa's weird sometimes," Cloud said.

Tifa nodded and slid the phone back into her pocket.

"We going to leave now?" she asked.

Cloud got on the bike. "Yeah."


	14. Aerial Strike

**Author's Note: **And the story continues! Starting a new chapter of my life, but don't think that means I'm neglecting you!

* * *

_Disney Castle: Aqua, Age "21"_

"Well, looks like we've got a party going on here!" Hades exclaimed, walking out of a dark corridor. Aqua frowned.

In fact, so did just about everyone else.

"And, look at all these guys! They're just having a blast! But we've got a couple of late-comers here…"

Hades snapped his fingers and two Titans walked through bigger dark corridors. The Ice Titan, and the Rock Titan. Aqua gripped her Keyblade tighter.

"Why Hades, you monster!" Minnie exclaimed, storming up to him.

Aqua bit her lip. Not that she doubted the Queen's abilities, but she was leaving herself rather unprotected…

"Oh, must we start name-calling already?" Hades asked.

The Rock Titan pounded the ground and Minnie was encapsulated in earth, only her head remained above it. She glowered at Hades.

The growl that came from Mickey was scary, however.

"Hades, why are you doing this?" he asked, his voice surprisingly calm given the previous growl.

"Well, you see," Hades said, looking at Mickey with raised eyebrows. "I want a summer home. And the Underworld is just so dead at the moment…"

"That doesn't mean you can just come and steal other people's…" Minnie began. However, as she was talking, the rock around her began to close over her face. The rest of her sentence was muffled.

Aqua gasped.

"Hades, you have one warning," Mickey said.

"Oh do I?"

Mickey brandished his Keyblade. "My _wife_."

Hades rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay! So maybe that's a bit much. Let her go, boys."

The Rock Titan complied. Minnie glowered.

"Now, how about we continue this battle, and see what the outcome is," Hades said. "Because I'm not giving up that easily."

The Ice Titan and the Rock Titan moved in for attack.

"I should have expected this," Mickey groaned, starting off for a counterattack.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Hades said. "I've got a better idea for us!"

He formed a cloud under Mickey and himself and started to carry them above the battle.

"No you don't," Aqua said. She jumped up and used a Dusk for a bit of a boost. She caught grip on the cloud and joined Hades and Mickey.

"Well, I think this is a bit unfair," Hades said, frowning.

"You're a god," Aqua retorted. "I think it's perfectly fair."

"Oh, I'm flattered. Not. Well, whatever, you can sit up here and watch the destruction just as much as he can, no matter to me. Now, let's watch my boys work!"

Mickey banished his Keyblade. Aqua followed suit. Surely he had a reason. Keeping one eye on him for cues, Aqua began watching the battle.

Minnie did not seem at all hurt by what the Rock Titan had done to her. She was throwing out light-attack after light-attack at the Heartless that were still floating around. Kairi and Ven had joined her.

Sora, Donald and Goofy were dealing with some remaining Dusks. They'd fallen into a pattern that they'd created long ago. Terra, Roxas, and Riku were focusing on the Rock Titan. Xion, Namine, and Axel had all gone for the Ice Titan. Everyone else was bouncing back and forth between all of the attackers.

Mickey had yet to do anything. He hadn't even said anything to Hades. What was he waiting for?

Hades hadn't said anything either. He was watching the battle with amusement. Pursing her lips, Aqua did the same (just minus the amusement.)

"Take a load of this!" Axel called, sending way more fire than could ever be contained in a simple spell at the Ice Titan. Aqua remembered Axel being sort of a pyro-technic. Fire was in his very being. He managed to melt one of the Ice Titan's legs. Unfortunately, the Ice Titan was capable of forming a new one.

It retaliated by sending a breath of ice right back at Axel, freezing him in place.

"Well, that puts a downer on things, doesn't it?" he grunted.

Namine and Xion launched into something that looked a lot like Firestorm. Aqua allowed herself a smile, seeing as she was responsible for them having that charm in the first place. They appeared to be working wonderfully. As Namine and Xion kept the Ice Titan occupied with a quick brunt of fire-based attacks, Axel was able to burn his way out of the ice—internally. Aqua was impressed with his abilities.

Riku and Roxas were utilizing Rockbreaker. Terra, seeing what they were doing, joined in their antics. Naturally, the attacks were very effective against the Rock Titan.

Still Mickey was quiet. Still Aqua did the same.

The Nobodies were gone. Hades didn't appear to be summoning anymore, either, figuring that his Titans could take care of the job, despite the focused attacks against them. Sora joined in the Heartless-killing, allowing Ven to join Axel, Namine, and Xion against the Ice Titan in a Firestorm of his own.

The Ice Titan seemed to have a vendetta against Axel, for it kept freezing him solid. Then Ven, Namine, and Xion would distract it in some way or another and Axel would unfreeze himself and send a fire-barrage. This latest time, he encircled the lot of them in a ring of fire, trapping them all inside. The Ice Titan had nowhere to go. Neither Namine nor Xion seemed fazed by this tactic. Aqua could only hope that Ven would adapt as well.

The ring of fire seemed to be keeping the Ice Titan from rejuvenating, however, which was good.

Hades saw fit to summon more Dusks and Creepers.

Aqua tried to catch Mickey's gaze, but he was too busy watching the battle. Aqua thought about how Hades was so open and she could attack so cleanly… but with Mickey standing there silently, she doubted if that was a good idea.

Suddenly, there were gunshots across the field, all aimed at the Heartless and Nobodies. Aqua looked up and saw a gummi ship.

"Yee-haw!" came a voice over the intercom. "Hope I'm no' late, yer Majesty!"

"What is the meaning of this?" Hades asked, turning on the King, his hair glowing red. "You called in reinforcements?"

Mickey shook his head, smiling slightly. "The only person I called was Sora. Everyone else came of their own accord."

Aqua looked up at the gummi ship, which had several cannons that shot out various blasts of Fire and whatnot, in addition to the blaster guns.

Hades groaned.

A rope ladder trailed down from the ship. Cid and Yuffie dropped from it.

"You keep this ship runnin', Shera, yeh hear!" Cid shouted.

Cid and Yuffie dropped into battle. Yuffie staggered a bit, but got her balance and threw her shuriken at a nearby Dusk. Cid hefted his spear and headed off into battle.

The addition of Cid, Yuffie, and the gummi ship tipped the scales in their favor.

Hades turned on Mickey.

"This isn't fair!" he shouted.

Mickey summoned his Keyblade and pointed it at Hades' heart. "It's no less fair than you laying siege on my castle for a summer home," he responded, his voice cold.

Hades laughed. "That Keyblade is little threat to me. You have to have a heart for those things to do what they're designed to do."

"A Keyblade is designed to do many things," Aqua said, summoning her Keyblade as she spoke.

"I would not be so cruel as to take your heart," Mickey said. "But I will not stand here any longer. Leave, or I will make you."

Hades' response was to send four tendrils of fire at Mickey, knocking his feet out from under him.

That was all the invitation Aqua needed. She jumped up and slashed at the back of Hades' head. Hades was stunned and Mickey was given a chance to stand properly back up.

"Thanks," he said.

"Yeah," Aqua replied.

Hades regained his composure and clapped his hands together. Then he spread his arms wide, bringing two walls of fire with it. Aqua and Mickey were forced to duck and roll out of the way. Given how small of a space they were limited to, their efforts had mixed results.

"Blizzaza!" Mickey shouted. The resulting blast froze Hades in place.

Nodding satisfyingly, Mickey jumped down. Aqua followed suit. She had no interest being forced to fight Hades in such a close quarter if she didn't have to.

It didn't take long for Hades to regain his composure. He dropped down to where Mickey and Aqua were then waiting for him.

"You pesky little rodent!" he growled.

Mickey gave him a look that implied that he'd been called worse.

Hades sent off several fireballs. Aqua took the liberty to bounce one of them back at Hades. It didn't seem to do any damage, which was a shame.

Mickey charged forward, aiming for Hades' face. As he was doing that, Aqua came up to attack as well. That attack was short-lived. Hades sent them both flying back with a burst of flames.

"Whoa! That's hotter than hot!" she heard Axel shout.

"Yeah, and you'd better stay away from it!" Roxas replied.

It was weird, how Roxas sounded so much like Ven. But she could still tell the difference. Roxas' voice was deeper, almost angrier sounding. Aqua couldn't be sure why.

Hades threw up another couple walls of flame and she ended up dodge-rolling a lot to get around them. She assumed the King did similarly.

When that was over with, Hades threw ball after ball after ball of fire. They were all aimed at either Mickey or Aqua. It was all Aqua could do to either cartwheel out of the way or send the ball of flame back. Again, not like it did any damage.

Without pausing for a break, Hades threw out several pillars of fire then. Aqua didn't have time to compose herself to throw a Blizzaga.

However, she didn't have to. Hades was stunned by a blast of light. It was a large blast at that. Aqua turned around to see who it had come from. Mickey clearly hadn't sent it, and there were few other people who could manage a blast of that size.

She needn't look far. Minnie was once again storming over to the battle.

Lazily, Hades sent a larger ball of fire her direction. However, she hit it in mid-air with a similar-sized blast of light. The fire exploded harmlessly. Well, it was only harmless in the fact that it exploded nowhere near anyone else.

"Hades!" Minnie roared. "You are no longer welcome here! We warned you and now your stay is overdue! You will leave!"

Mickey laughed. "Gosh, now you've done it."

Aqua blinked. It occurred to her that Minnie was just as much the ruler of Disney Castle as Mickey was. She ruled it in his absence and dealt with probably as many threats and responsibilities. And though Mickey was a Keyblade Master, it took someone of strong heart to wield light like that and not even be the slightest bit tired—especially since she was using _her bare hands_.

"I will not stand here and watch you destroy my home!" Minnie continued.

Hades rolled his eyes and sent a jet of flame right at her.

"Your majesty!" Aqua shouted. She jumped in front of the Queen, pushing her out of the way. The fire hit Aqua full-force, but somehow, that didn't matter…

"Stopza!" Minnie shouted.

Coughing, Aqua propped herself up by her elbows. Everything hurt.

But Hades was frozen.

Mickey had his Keyblade aimed to the sky. He formed a door. He waited for the spell to wear off, but as it did, he had his Keyblade aimed once more at Hades' chest.

"You're leaving now," he said. "And you will stay where you belong. I have magicians who can keep you there."

Before Hades had a chance to protest, Mickey whacked him with his Keyblade, sending Hades hurtling to the door behind him.

Aqua coughed again.

Minnie turned her attention to her. "Curaga!" she shouted.

Aqua watched as singed flesh slowly began repairing itself.

"Thank you," Minnie said, kneeling down beside Aqua. Aqua pulled herself up into a sitting position and rested her hands on her knees. "I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner."

"No, no, it's fine," Aqua assured her.

She took a moment to look around. Neither of the Titans were around anymore. They must have been gotten rid of when she was busy with Hades. The Nobodies and the Heartless had been taken care of as well.

"Are you really going to banish Hades to his own World?" Aqua asked. "Can you even do such a thing?"

"I'm considering it," Mickey said. "And I can't, but I know people who can."

"Hey, Aqua, are you okay?" Ven asked, running up. Terra was right behind him.

"Yeah," she said. "Really, I'm okay."

"You gotta be careful, helping people out like that," Terra said, smiling. He offered her a hand to help her up. She rolled her eyes and took his hand.


	15. A Dangerous Ego

_Hollow Bastion: Aerith_

"These ones look like gargoyles," Zack said. "Can't we just call them gargoyles?"

Aerith looked over at the Heartless Zack was referring to. She only had a brief second because Zack was in the middle of fighting them all, but she got a good enough look to know the ones he was talking about. They did look like gargoyles.

"Sure, why not?" Aerith said. "I don't think anyone else has named them yet."

"Sweet. I like short names, better than … what was it Rinoa calls them? Supermassive Possessors?"

"That's the one!"

"Long name if I've ever known one."

Aerith laughed.

"These ones kind of remind me of bombs," Zack said. "Like from back home."

"Those are called Darkballs, Zack," Aerith said.

"Yeah, I know, but they still remind me of bombs."

"They don't explode…"

"Aerith, you are killing my fun."

Aerith laughed again. She knew she wasn't actually killing his fun. He voice was teasing.

There were less Heartless than usual in Hollow Bastion, certainly. But there were still enough to warrant going out one or two times a day during the busiest times and take care of them so that other people (the people who couldn't defend themselves as well) could live out their normal lives.

Aerith didn't mind it. Especially because she could spend that time with Zack.

And Zack lived for the fight.

They got rid of the Heartless in the area and moved onto a different one. This area was closer to the marketplace, so getting rid of Heartless was slightly more imperative.

"So, I was talking to Leon," Zack said.

"Yeah?"

"I think you and I are going to go visit my parents for a day—not tomorrow, but the day after."

"Oh? And what does this have to do with Leon?"  
"Making sure they all can handle themselves with me gone," Zack said, grinning. "And you, of course!"

Aerith rolled her eyes.

"Leon figures that by that point, Cid and Yuffie should be back, and even if they aren't, between him, Rinoa, Quistis, and Zell, they can keep a handle on the place."

"I'll have to go grocery shopping tomorrow then," Aerith mused. "There are about three set things that Leon can cook."

Zack snorted.

"But it sounds like a good idea, right?"

"Yes!" Aerith said. "I'm assuming we'll spend the whole day in Gongaga, then?"

"Unless you have somewhere else to go?"

Aerith shook her head.

"Maybe we'll make a stop in Nibelheim though," Zack mused. "See if Cloud _actually _went and said hello to his mother."

"I get the feeling he didn't," Aerith mused.

"Right?" Zack said.

They cleared the marketplace.

"Do you want to go check out towards the edge of town?" Zack asked. "Maybe keep them from getting in?"

"I'm not sure it works like that, but sure, why not? We've got time."

Zack put his sword up on his back and reached out a hand to take Aerith's. She shifted her staff to her other hand and took his. He liked to walk on her right, so that his left hand held her right. That way, if something were to happen, he could always pull his sword out with little problem and start fighting just as quick as ever. Aerith didn't mind carrying her staff with her left hand. If she was only casting magic, she could do that left handed. If she was using her staff as more of a melee weapon, it ended up taking both hands.

The two of them matched each other's pace and walked hand-in-hand to the edges of town. Unsurprisingly, there were Heartless.

In addition to the Darkballs, the Neoshadows and Megashadows, there were also some Poolers and some of those Gargoyles that they'd all gotten used to seeing

Zack squeezed Aerith's hand once before letting it go, drawing his sword simultaneously. Aerith tossed her staff to her other hand and prepared to fight.

"Hmm," Zack mused. "I suppose I should clean my sword again. Prevent the rust at least."

"You cleaned it just a few days ago."

"Yeah, but that was before the giant battle we had here. I'll do it either tonight or tomorrow."

"I'll remind you if you forget," Aerith said.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

It really was no problem. Aerith knew how much Zack cared for that sword. It meant a lot to him. And it was the last thing he had of Angeal's.

Aerith focused her attention on the Poolers, knowing how dangerous they could be. She didn't doubt that Rinoa would be able to still get someone back, if a Pooler succeeded in actually taking someone to the Realm of Darkness, but Aerith would rather not waste that time and energy. Individual Poolers were not a problem, it was when they started getting to be more than half a dozen that caused worry.

"How long are you planning on staying, now?" Aerith asked. The DTP had done its job. People were probably going to start moving back within the next couple of weeks.

"Why?" Zack replied. "Trying to get rid of me?"

He was teasing. Still…

"No," Aerith said, shaking her head. "That's not what I mean at all."

He laughed.

"I don't know, really, a while, I suppose."

Aerith wasn't sure what 'a while' meant for Zack. It could mean any number of things and times. She wished he would be more specific, but she was afraid of asking him to do so, because she was afraid of the answer she might get. Zack loved travel and fighting.

She went back to focusing on the Poolers, as well as some of the Neoshadows, because when they were in the ground, they could be mistaken as Poolers and Aerith wanted to be on the safe side.

"Whoa!" Zack shouted.

Aerith spun around. She'd heard the appearance of more Heartless. Were there a lot of them? Were they large?

They were large.

They looked sort of dog-like, though they were easily almost the size of Aerith or Zack. Their heads were disproportionately small, and pointed, more like rodents. But their teeth and eyes were still large. Aerith shuddered. Heartless didn't usually have teeth. But they were Heartless—the yellow eyes were unmistakable. They were the epitome of grotesqueness.

"They're like awful-looking wolves," Aerith whispered.

"Don't say that," Zack said. "They look more like panthers to me."

"What's wrong with them being wolves?" Aerith asked.

"I like wolves," Zack grunted.

She'd allow him that.

There were a lot of them. At a second glance, Aerith realized they were practically surrounded.

"I thought Hollow Bastion was done putting out new types of Heartless!" Zack exclaimed.

"I don't think this has anything to do with the fact that we ran the DTP," Aerith said. "I think these are just new types of Heartless that we probably would have gotten anyway. The Heartless are on the Worlds to stay it would seem."

Zack groaned. "Well, let's get rid of these things. Don't want _them _getting into town."

"I'll agree," Aerith said.

Zack started taking care of one of them, trying to prevent them from becoming completely surrounded. Aerith started casting simple spells (Thundaga, Blizzaga, Firaga, Graviga, etc.) in order to stun them and maybe even get rid of a few. She felt herself and Zack slipping into a different pattern of theirs: Zack attacks everything in sight and Aerith makes sure he doesn't hurt himself.

"Man these guys are tough!" Zack exclaimed.

He didn't have to say that twice. Aerith had already figured that out, given how the _Graviga _hadn't done much. She might have to switch into some Pearls or maybe Faith…

A summon might be helpful right about now… But Aerith didn't keep any summon materia on her. Yuffie usually kept ahold of most of it. So unless Zack had any…

"Zack, you don't happen to have any summons on you, do you?"

"Nope," Zack replied. "But it's cool, I've got this."

Aerith looked over at him and saw that he was surrounded by three of the things. She pursed her lips.

"Thundaga!" she called, aiming the spell in their direction.

Well, it killed one of the things.

"Thanks!" Zack said. "Just the boost I needed!"

With one swipe, he managed to take care of the remaining two.

Except five more appeared.

Aerith groaned. Even Zack didn't seem super thrilled.

"All right," he said, determinedly. "I'll get these. Aerith, cover me."

Aerith cast Curaga.

On the bright side, if it could be considered a bright side, was that no other Heartless aside from the big ones were bothering them at that particular moment.

But they still had five of the giant Heartless to deal with.

Aerith wanted to check in Xehanort's research that Ienzo had picked up. Apparently, there were lots of interesting things about the Heartless in it—classifications and whatnot. Maybe it said something about these gross Heartless.

"Zack, I think we should turn back, get more help. There's too many of them."

"Nah! I can get 'em!"

Aerith wasn't too sure of that. Zack was surrounded by the five of them. No matter what Aerith did, she couldn't seem to distract them. She couldn't get to Zack to help. For whatever reason, the Heartless were focused on him. She cast a couple of Pearls, but to no avail. She started digging out an ether, knowing she didn't have the energy for anything bigger at that precise moment.

As she was doing that, one of the five Heartless jumped up and knocked Zack down. Given its size, it didn't even look like it had too much of a problem doing so. Aerith felt her own breath get knocked out of her as Zack's was knocked out of him. The Heartless moved in for another attack, but Zack managed to get his sword between him and the thing. Aerith stood there in shock. The ether fell to the ground.

"Zack!" she called, finding her voice.

Zack sliced through the Heartless and jumped back up to his feet. The Heartless, unlike usual, still lay there for a bit, twitching. Then it disappeared like it should have done before. Had the Heartless not been such a huge threat, Aerith would have felt bad for it. Namine had said once that Heartless had memories somewhere buried within them. They had to, in order for Namine's powers to even work. But Aerith couldn't spare the time to be sorry for them now.

Zack was barely standing before a second Heartless knocked him over. Before he could properly block, the Heartless clawed at him, aiming for the heart.

"No!" Aerith screamed

She hadn't had a chance to use the ether, but that didn't matter. She let loose a huge blast of Holy. It spiraled out, more like Salvation. She got rid of the Heartless, but then collapsed to the ground herself.

"You're an idiot," she coughed. "I said we should go back."

"But I'm your idiot," Zack coughed. He slowly got to his feet and stumbled over to her, the Buster Sword dragging behind him. "Cure!" he said.

Aerith felt only marginally better. The Cure must have done him more good than her. She noticed her ether lying on the ground beside her. She barely had the energy for a smile. She picked it up and took it. That made her feel better.

"I'm gonna need a potion," Zack said, looking at his chest. Where the Heartless had gotten him, there were faint traces of darkness. "Damn things."

Aerith pulled her emergency potion out of her pocket and handed it to him. Darkness shouldn't wait if there was another option.

"Thanks," he said, kissing her on the nose. He downed the potion and wiped his face on his glove.

"We should go back now," Aerith said.

"Yeah."

"You and your ego," she mused. "You could have gotten us both hurt."

"Looks like I did," Zack said. "But we're fine, right? And you still love me?"

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "Of course I still love you! What kind of question is that?"

He grinned. "Forgive me for fishing. I just wanted to hear you say it."


	16. A Cowardly Exit

_Disney Castle: Xion_

"So, I guess we clean up now," Aqua said.

"Man, I hate this part," Axel groaned.

Xion snorted.

Suddenly, Riku, the King, and Terra all summoned their blades.

Without trying to figure out why, Xion did the same.

In the time it took everyone else to summon their blades, Xion had put together the pieces. If Riku, the King, and Terra were the first three people to summon their blades, there was only one answer:

Xehanort.

Xion looked around, trying to peg where he'd show up from. She almost wished she had Riku's sense of smell. But then again, perhaps not.

Then she heard the laugh.

By that point, everyone was looking at him. Definitely a Xehanort Remnant. Xion wondered if it was the same Remnant. Was there only one? Were there multiple? Did it matter? This one looked the same as the one had in Hollow Bastion—sort of like Xemnas, but she couldn't peg whether he looked older or younger. He had the same mannerisms, the same walk, the same laugh. The only difference was that this one had his cloak unzipped, revealing loose and movable clothing. Everything else was the same.

"Well, look at the welcoming party I've been given!" he said.

He was met with more than a dozen frowns. Xion was sure the _brooms_ were frowning.

Yuffie's shuriken came flying through the air. It was silent and it spiraled around the Xehanort Remnant, so theoretically, he wouldn't see it.

Except he did.

Not only did he see it, he caught it mid-flight with his bare hand. (Well, gloved, but still.)

"No fair!" Yuffie shouted.

He chuckled and cast the shuriken on the ground. Xion swallowed.

"So many potential vessels," the Remnant said. "But I can't do anything with you all standing there like this."

He raised up a hand, preparing to summon something.

Xion wished she could get there in time, but she wasn't the closest. The closest was Roxas, and by the time he was running to the Xehanort Remnant to stop him, the Remnant had summoned half as many Heartless as had joined Hades earlier—except those Heartless had come on their own.

There were Neoshadows and Giant Possessors (Xion's name for the Supermassive ones since Supermassive took longer to say than Giant, Rinoa's personal vendetta or no). There were Gigas Shadows and a couple of Invisibles. There were also some new ones—panther like with claws and teeth, their yellow eyes narrow as slits.

"This should be fun!" the Remnant said.

The Heartless attacked.

"It's a distraction tactic!" Aqua shouted over the crowd. "He's trying to wear us out, get to him!"

Surely Aqua would have known that was obvious. Of course the Xehanort Remnant would do something like this to distract them from what he was actually doing. He'd practically said that himself. Plus, he had to know that they were all growing tired after the last battle. Xion's dealings with that Ice Titan had not left her with maxed energy. But she would keep pushing herself.

She started to take care of some Neoshadows while she did some quick thinking. Could they even attack the Remnant? Would he take damage? Clearly he was corporeal, as he had caught Yuffie's shuriken. But was he worth attacking? He would only come back. But if they attacked him and "got rid of him," would he stay out of their hair for a while? Long enough for them to track down someone who was a source?

Roxas picked up Yuffie's shuriken and tossed it back to her. Xion decided she wanted to work her way over to Roxas, no matter what else happened.

Except she ended up over by Ven. Not that she couldn't tell the difference between the two of them (she was dating one of them), but Ven was having trouble with some Neoshadows, and she was the closest person to help.

Taking a running leap, she somersaulted herself over the lot of them and landed back-to-back with Ven.

"You have trouble with these guys, don't you?" she asked.

"What?! No! I…" Ven sighed. "Yes."

"Thought so." She wasn't going to ask why, she wasn't going to press for further information. Ven had trouble with Neoshadows: fine. She was going to help him then. "Can you do this with me?" she asked.

Ven bit his lip, but squared his shoulders. "Yes."

Xion switched her Keyblade to her left hand. If she was fighting alongside Ven, it would make it easier for both of them if she did so (even if he'd learned how to fight left-handed along right-handed people).

"You hold your Keyblade funky," she mused.

"You hold yours just like Roxas," Ven retorted.

"Who holds his just like Sora," Xion finished. "I know."

The Neoshadows loomed in closer.

"Keep your back to me," Xion said. "It'll prevent them from sneaking up on you. Don't focus on the ones you can't see. Because I'll be getting them. And I won't worry about the ones I can't see, because you'll be getting them. Got it?"  
"Yeah."

His voice sounded a little shaky still. She wondered what his problem with Neoshadows was. She tossed her Keyblade into Strike Raid, not wanting to leave Ven's back unprotected for too long. When she did this with Roxas, they moved in perfect tandem with each other, because they knew each other so well. Ven was different. Ven was also scared.

However, he was using a lot of Fire, keeping his back to her. She figured that at least was a good thing.

She felt a burst of energy.

"You're welcome!" Yuffie called over the crowd.

Xion looked over and saw that Yuffie's shuriken glowed with green light.

"She shouldn't have let the Xehanort Remnant know it was her," she groaned.

"He probably already knew anyway," Ven said quietly.

"Ah, true."

She kept fighting, but she was strategizing in her head. She could continue covering Ven, but covering wasn't going to cut it forever. They needed to get ahead of the Heartless, as well as the Xehanort Remnant. Plus, she was probably better off dealing with the Invisibles, because she had plenty of experience dealing with those. She and Namine would probably be the best ones to deal with them, actually.

As much as she wanted to be the one to deal with the Remnant, it would probably be best to let someone like the King, Aqua, Riku or Sora take care of him. So they just needed to clear a path. And she needed to get everyone else in on that.

Ha! If she could get Roxas over here with Ven, she could then get over to Namine and get her to focus on the Invisibles, and then Namine could tell Kairi to do…something (Xion would come up with it), but she could do it remotely without the Remnant noticing.

Yes, this would work.

"Roxas!" she shouted. "Get yourself over here!"

"On it!" he shouted back. "Hey, Riku, can I have a boost?"

In a very impressive feat (and it took a bit to impress Xion these days), Riku tossed his Keyblade into Freeze Raid, spun around and cupped his hands. Roxas jumped up and planted his foot cleanly into Riku's hands. Riku boosted Roxas backwards. In a backflip and slaughter of some Gigas Shadows, Roxas landed almost nearly next to Xion and Ven, there were only a few Neoshadows in the way. Which, between Roxas and Xion, were taken care of cleanly. Xion may not be as good as Roxas at getting rid of them, but she was getting close.

"What's up?" Roxas asked.

"Cover Ven," she said. "He has trouble with Neoshadows, and you're the best person to balance that. Better yet, though, keep clear of the Neoshadows."

"Thank you," Ven said quietly.

"What are you going to be doing?" Roxas asked.

"Helping Namine with the Invisibles."

"But Namine isn't…"

Xion hushed him.

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Right, what's your trouble with Neoshadows?" he directed at Ven.

"I… um…"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter now. Let's do this!"

With a satisfied nod, Xion took off running. She wished she could teleport around the battlefield like Axel could, but she hadn't been in the Organization long enough to learn that trick. It didn't matter though, she got to Namine quick enough.

"Hello," Namine said.

"Hey. Help me with the Invisibles, yeah?"

"Sure thing." Namine didn't even question.

Xion looked around and saw that Kairi was over by Aqua, figuring there wasn't really a better place for her to be, she decided to leave that issue alone. What she needed to do, was figure out who had the clearest path to the Xehanort Remnant and let them know.

"Can you see the Invisibles when they're invisible?" she asked Namine.

"Yes, if I am looking."

"Can you shatter them when they are invisible?"

"I can shatter them, invisible or no. The problem is I can only do about one at a time with large breaks in between because they have a lot of substance to them."

"What if I wear them down first?"

"That makes things easier."

"Darn, I can't keep a lock on them when they're invisible!"

"Jump!"

Xion got into a pattern of wearing down the Invisibles when she could see them.

"That one's low, get it!" Xion said.

Namine did so. Then they jumped.

Xion noticed the Xehanort Remnant staring suspiciously at Riku. Then he turned away and clutched a hand to his forehead.

"Namine, are you responsible for that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Namine said absentmindedly, jumping lithely away from an Invisible's attack.

Either Namine could multitask well and lie about it, or the Remnant's headache was caused by something else. Xion doubted this, however.

"Can you get this last Invisible?" Xion asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes."

Namine did so and they were given a moment's break. Xion turned her attention between the Remnant and Riku. The Remnant didn't appear to be dealing with a headache at that moment, or he was working through it. Regardless, it was fairly clear what he was trying to do.

"Someone should get to him and stop him!" Xion growled.

But he was surrounded by giant Heartless, blocking anyone's path.

Riku doubled over, clutching his hand over his chest. Xion gasped and looked over at Namine…

… who looked surprisingly nonchalant. In fact, she was very busy taking an ether.

Xion turned back to Riku. He was straightening himself up, a smirk on his face. He summoned his Keyblade again.

"Nice try, Xehanort!" he called. "But I'll have you know that I appear to have a resistance to your darkness tampers!"

The Heartless between Xehanort and Riku disappeared. As did the ones between Xehanort and Sora.

"Did you plan that?" Xion asked, looking at Namine.

Namine staggered a little and Xion rushed over to steady her.

"No," Namine answered. "But that's why it's going to work."

Namine had been looking for an opening, too. Riku and Sora were running full-tilt at the Xehanort Remnant, who was still baffled enough at that moment to allow them to get to him. By the time they'd gotten there, he'd barely managed to throw up a Dark Shield for a block. Riku and Sora exchanged glances and then nodded. Riku ducked down and put his hand out on the shield. He dismantled it, allowing Sora time to jump up and whack the Xehanort Replica on the head. He recoiled and sent a barrage of Dark Firaga at the both of them. They kept attacking.

Most everyone had stopped what they were doing—easy enough considering the Heartless had basically been taken care of and the Remnant was too occupied to summon more.

The Remnant threw Riku and Sora back with a burst of something Xion could only describe as dark energy. He looked around the battlefield with a glare, then he disappeared, just like he had last time.

"Coward!" Aqua shouted. Her voice was echoed by Kairi's and Minnie's. Several other people shouted it, too. Xion found herself joining in the cries, as if the Xehanort Remnant could hear them.

"He'll be back," Namine said quietly.


	17. A Need for Sleep

_Disney Castle: Axel_

"So _now _we clean up," Roxas said.

Mickey sighed and looked around. "Yes."

Minnie came over and slid her hand into Mickey's.

"The brooms will take care of it," she said. "It is their job, after all."

"Sweet!" Axel said. "I don't have to help!"

Most everyone rolled their eyes. Axel didn't care.

"Well, quickly, while we have the time," Mickey said. "Regardless of whether the brooms are going to clean up without us or not, let's discuss our next move."

"Well, I was figuring we'd still go to the World that Never Was," Sora said. "Isn't that still the plan?"

"It might be better if we split up into smaller groups," Mickey said. "Try and find the causes for the Remnants that way. We can get to them quicker."

"Nuh-uh!" Sora said, shaking his head. "I'm taking my friends with me."

Most everyone looked at him.

"Sora, you have a ton of friends," Riku said after a moment.

"Well, mostly I just meant Kairi, Riku, Namine, Roxas, Xion, and Axel," Sora said, ticking everyone off on his fingers.

"That's still a lot," Roxas muttered.

Axel was slightly taken aback. It felt weird to be included in that list. Granted, he would have gone anyway, given the choice, because Roxas and Xion were going. But, to have Sora consider him as a friend? Because, yes, Sora had friends in every single World he visited… but sometimes, Axel wondered if people saw past the enemy he used to be.

"Well, if you're going to take that many people at once," Mickey said. "Then I'm going to lend you my gummi ship."

Sora's eyes went wide.

"Really!? No! I mean, you don't _have _to!"

"Yes, I do. You won't sleep otherwise. You'll keep running until the job is taken care of and you need sleep."

"Sora," Donald chided. "Listen to the King."

"Won't the ship take longer, though," Riku said. "And you said so yourself that we should probably expedite this process. This is Xehanort we are dealing with."

"You've still gotta sleep sometime," Goofy answered.

Riku shrugged. "Fair point, I suppose."

"Terra, Ven, and I will be doing what you are doing, just probably quieter since it will be the three of us," Aqua volunteered.

"Plus, Master Yen Sid wants us to track down parts of Xehanort's history," Terra added. "To see if it turns up any clues."

"Good idea!" Sora said.

"And I'll be out and about in the Worlds," Mickey said. "Finding the causes will be one of my priorities."

"What else are you going to be doing?" Sora asked.

Axel rolled his eyes. Always with the questions.

Mickey held his finger over his lips. "It's a secret. I can't tell you."

"Will you need help, your Majesty?" Donald asked.

Mickey shook his head. "For something like this, I'm best undetected alone. I am easy enough to find as it is."

Terra frowned. "I'm not much better."

"And we're not noticeable?" Riku asked.

"Now that I am thinking about it, Xehanort expects you to be together. So if you go along with that, and then split up later, it could work to your advantage," Mickey said.

It seemed to be settled, then. Mickey sent a couple of people off to get the ship for them to borrow. He said they should get on with their tasks as soon as possible. The Queen ordered them all food to go. Everyone said their goodbyes. Aqua, Terra, and Ven left before anyone else. (Mostly because they were still waiting on the ship.) Mickey said he had business to attend to at the castle and then he'd be on his way as well. Axel was sure he wasn't the only one who noticed that the Queen's face fell a little, but he surely wasn't going to be the one to mention anything about it. Not his business, or even his problem.

"Well, I thin' we'll be goin' too, then," Cid said, coming up to shake both Mickey and Minnie's hands before they disappeared back to the castle.

"Thank you for your help," Mickey said. "You really turned the tides for us."

"Aerith suggested it," Yuffie said.

"She's very perceptive," Minnie said.

Yuffie shook their hands, then waved as she started back to the gummi ship.

"Yeh gonna come, Shera?" Cid asked.

Axel frowned. Wasn't his cannon named Shera? So why would he be talking to a cannon? Granted, Cid had done some pretty strange things…

Except, Shera was also a woman. She had brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and eyes framed behind large glasses. She still held a decently-sized gun in her hand from the battle. Axel had remembered several people piling off the gummi ship, but he hadn't thought to ask…

The woman, Shera, turned to look at Mickey and Minnie.

Mickey nodded. "You've done a lot to help," he said. "You deserve a vacation."

"I dunno if Hollow Bastion's much of a vacation, but…" Cid said. But he was grinning.

"Thank you," Shera said, nodding to the King.

"Don' worry, yer Majesty, I won' be takin' yer whole tech department!"

Minnie laughed. Even Mickey smiled a bit.

Shera and Cid joined hands.

"Who…?" Sora began.

Axel was silently grateful. Clearly Cid and Shera were a thing and no one knew, but he appreciated Sora being the one to ask so he didn't have to.

"This here's Shera," Cid said, turning to the others. He still had that grin on his face. "She's my partner." The way he said 'partner' implied a bit more than coworkers. "Ain' she a beaut?"

Shera slapped him playfully on the arm. "Cid, sometimes you talk about me like I'm a ship or something."

"Coming from him, that's a compliment!" Yuffie called from the gummi ship.

Sora just stood there scratching his head. Axel couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. Riku started laughing too. Soon, they were all laughing.

Cid just rolled his eyes and went to the gummi ship, still hand-in-hand with Shera. Yuffie followed them, making gagging faces. Then they left as well.

"I feel like I missed something," Sora said, frowning.

"Get over it," Riku said. "You don't have to know everything about everyone's lives all the time."

"Yeah," Sora said with a shrug. "I suppose not."

The gummi ship that they were to be borrowing showed up and they had to start saying their own goodbyes. Sora took forever to say goodbye to everyone else because he was basically friends with all of them. Though even Riku and Mickey had a bit of a prolonged farewell. Axel just rolled his eyes and got onto the ship

He settled himself into a chair and reclined back. Slowly but surely, everyone else got on.

"I'm driving," Riku announced.

"Nonsense," Xion argued. "Mickey said we all need sleep, and since I need sleep less than the rest of you, I should drive this time."

"That's ridiculous! I'll be fine."

"Just like old times," Kairi mused, settling into a chair of her own.

"What do you mean?" Xion asked.

"This is nothing new, though usually it was Riku and Sora arguing."

"When…?" Xion said.

"You were still somewhere in the depths of Sora's heart," Namine said, her sketchbook appearing in her hands as she took a seat. "I only remember bits and pieces."  
"You probably remember more than me," Roxas said.

"But you still remember some," Namine said, pointing at him with a pencil.

"So I'm the only one with no memories of the happy adventures on the gummi ship?"  
"I'm not sure happy's the right word," Riku said.

"You have to smile," Kairi said. "That's the gas."

Riku rolled his eyes.

"Do you even know how to drive this thing?" he asked Xion.

"How hard is it to figure out?"

Riku groaned.

"Oi! Sora!" Kairi called. "We're waiting on you!"

Sora disentangled himself from Donald and Goofy and got on the ship. Xion ended up in the driver's seat, though Riku was in the navigation chair right next to her. Kairi and Sora buckled in and started to doze while holding hands. Roxas fell asleep. Even Namine seemed a bit drowsy through her drawings.

Not tired in the slightest, for whatever reason, Axel pulled out Saix's journal. He still had several months' worth of entries to get through. Give or take a week. There was a part of him that literally wanted to cross-check Saix's entries with his own journal to see what lined up with what. But he wasn't sure he had time for that. He was looking for very specific things. Things that involved Xehanort. Not that Saix seemed forthcoming about that sort of information in his journal. Either that, or Saix didn't know very much. Which might also be a possibility. Axel doubted it slightly, but it was still a possibility.

_Our plans never accounted for the possibility of both Xion and Roxas leaving. How did this come to pass? When did Roxas grow strong enough to outmuscle me? What were you really after, Lea? We joined the Organization at the same time, and formulated our plan. At this point, it's just an idle fantasy. Everything changed. You, and me. _

Axel read that entry several times. A different question on the page jumped out at him each time. How was it that Roxas and Xion both ended up leaving? Well, considering it had been made clear that they both couldn't stay there, it was no wonder why they both deserted. Sometimes, Axel kicked himself for not deserting sooner than he did. It might have saved him some last heartache, but there was really no telling.

When had Roxas grown strong enough to outmuscle Saix? All the training he'd been forced through, gathering hearts for Xemnas' project…

And the question that hit home more than any other: what was Lea really after?

A true friendship.

Was that so much to ask?

For someone without a heart, perhaps so.

Axel looked up. It was weird, seeing the interior of the gummi ship after all of the pounding in his head. Everyone save for Xion was asleep. Riku had dozed off sometime in the last however long it had been.

"You should sleep," Xion told him.

"Yeah, except I'm doing potentially vital research," he retorted.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Is that all you're going to tell me."

"You betcha."

He saw in her reflection on the glass that she rolled her eyes.

"That's Saix's journal, isn't it?" she mused.

"How'd you know?"

"I recognized his handwriting. It was all over the place when there were edicts and stuff."

"Huh, yeah, I suppose it was."

"Anything interesting?"

"Interesting, yes. Useful for our current mission, not yet."

"Well, if it's not useful, then you should sleep."

Axel sighed.

How had Saix managed to lose sight of their friendship, their plans?

Maybe he should just give up for the time being.

Or maybe just one more entry.

_I should have seen this coming, Lea. It should have come as no surprise when you left the Organization. Our threats alone could not keep you. Yet, there is a part of me that is still surprised. You threw away everything we had worked for. No matter. I can handle it from here. Surely you know there is a price on your head. And traitors must be taken care of._

Axel snorted. "Oh gee, thanks."

"Hmm?"

"Oh, that price on my head."

Xion snorted as well.

"I think I'm going to sleep now," Axel said.

"You got it."

"You should maybe sleep, too, for a bit," he suggested.

"Yeah, maybe I'll wake Riku up here in a bit. We've still got a bit until the World that Never Was."

"Yeah, 'cause it's so far away from everything."

"Yeah."


	18. Is that your Nickname?

**Author's Note: **For you, Peach, my one super dedicated reader/reviewer!

* * *

_The World That Never Was: Riku_

The lights were flickering. Rather, they would be off, and then on, and then off again.

Riku slowly opened his eyes. He was still on the gummi ship. He looked around. Xion was standing by the light panel and was the one responsible for the lights turning on and off again.

"What…?" he began.

"We're here," she replied.

"You were supposed to wake me!" Riku groaned, sitting up properly. "You needed sleep, too!"

She shrugged. "I think I'll be fine."

"If I have to spend more Cures on you…"

She rolled her eyes. "A simple thing like a Cure is negligible to you, Riku. You and Sora both. Besides, this is more of a reconnaissance mission than anything else."

Riku was glad she didn't add 'nothing bad could happen,' because then something bad _would _happen. Still, he was beginning to get the feeling that this wasn't going to be a simple matter. Something would inevitably go wrong.

"Who's flicking the lights?" Roxas asked groggily.

"Me!" Xion replied, a smile growing on her face. "I'm trying to wake you all up, we're here."

"Oh, okay then," Roxas got up.

Riku looked at the others. Namine's eyes were open, though she was staring blankly at the ceiling, not even blinking when the lights flickered on after being off for two seconds. Riku smiled a little at the sight of her.

"You can quit it with the lights," he said, looking at Xion. "I think the others aren't going to wake up that way."

"Well, Axel can sleep through anything," Xion said with a shrug. "I was figuring I'd have to dump him out of his chair."

She said the last part loudly, as if testing to see if Axel might wake up at that threat. He didn't.

"Sora can sleep through anything, too," Riku said.

"They're holding hands," Namine said, speaking for the first time as she turned her head to look at Sora and Kairi.

Riku raised his eyebrows. "So they are."

He got up and went over to where the two of them were. They were indeed holding hands across their seats.

"Sorry, bro," Riku said. "But it's time to get up."

"Riku…" Namine started.

But Riku had already flicked Sora hard on the ear. When that didn't do anything, he flicked him on the nose. Still nothing.

"Riku, what are you doing?" Kairi asked.

"Trying to wake Sora up," he said. "We're kind of where we're supposed to be."

"Oh," Kairi said. She grabbed Sora's hand with her other hand and yanked him half out of his seat. His torso hung out of the chair and his hair drooped a little.

Namine snorted.

"I was being nice," Riku said, shrugging.

"Wake up sleepyhead," Kairi said, leaning out of her own chair so that her head was level with his.

"I don't think that's a wise idea," Namine started.

Sora mumbled something that Riku didn't catch. Kairi started giggling. Suddenly, they were both falling to the floor. Riku moved out of the way.

"I told you," Namine said quietly.

"I'm awake!" Sora said loudly.

"That just leaves Axel," Roxas said, looking over at him.

"Do you want to, or shall I?" Xion asked.

"I'll get him."

Roxas got out of his own chair, went over behind Axel and proceeded to shove him out of his chair. Axel landed with as loud of a _thump _as Sora and Kairi had. It was louder once he started swearing.

"We're here," Xion said. "Everyone put cloaks on."

"Where'd you park us?" Riku asked.

"In the town," Xion said. "You can't land anywhere near the castle."

"Huh, used to be able to," Sora mused.

"Well, there's a lot of darkness in the way. So, cloaks."

"We didn't have cloaks in Hollow Bastion," Namine pointed out.

"Yeah, well, they serve more than one purpose," Xion said.

"She has a point," Riku said. "They can help us go undetected."

"Sorry," Namine said, shaking her head. "That wasn't what I meant by that statement. What that thought actually was, was that perhaps we should have worn cloaks in Hollow Bastion."

"Eh, I think we're all right," Sora said.

"Hmph," Riku grunted. Sora was probably less all right than he thought. None of them were immune to the darkness, save for Kairi, really. Though, Riku was slightly proud that the Xehanort Remnant hadn't been able to touch him. He wondered if that were a permanent thing—was his heart really free from him? Or was it because the Remnant lacked the necessary strength?

"How much darkness is there compared to when we were around the other day?" Roxas asked. "Can anyone tell?"

"I will, once we get outside," Riku said.

"Right."  
"Do you think it's a DCP like in Hollow Bastion?" Kairi asked.

"That's actually really likely, now that you mention it," Axel replied.

"How could we have not thought to activate the one here?" Roxas asked.

"Hollow Bastion had people we care about," Namine replied.

"Well, add that to a potential to-do list," Riku said. "And we may have to do that before we do anything else."

"Where would it even be?"

"If all it takes is a computer to activate it," Xion said. "Then I know where the computer room is."  
"So do I," Axel said.

"That's settled then," Kairi said.

Everyone had their cloaks on by then. "Hoods up," Axel said. Everyone did so.

Riku had to take a moment to be amused at how similar Namine, Kairi, and Xion looked. Yet, there were still subtle differences. Xion was shorter than the other two, by a couple of inches, but you could only notice it if she was standing right next to them, given how she carried herself. Kairi had more curves when you looked closely. Namine was… Namine was smaller and thinner than the other two, lacking the muscle mass that came with wielding a Keyblade. But, if Riku thought about it, Namine had always been smaller than Kairi because of how Castle Oblivion had treated her—and she'd never caught up.

Riku looked over at Roxas and Sora, just to see. They looked nearly identical. They even slouched the same. However, Roxas looked more tense, his shoulders squared, already preparing for a fight. Sora was more laid back, looking like he was off his guard. Actually, he might be. But Sora was just as quick at summoning his blade as anyone else once he'd noticed danger.

"I'll go first," Riku said, going towards the door.

As he stepped out into the street, he felt a hand on his arm. Namine. He turned and smiled at her, but he couldn't be sure she saw it with his hood up.

"Actually," he said, for the benefit of everyone. "The darkness is less than it was the other day."

"Still too much to park closer," Xion said defensively.

"We came here by star shard," Riku said. "We wouldn't have noticed it."

"What's the quickest way to get into the castle?" Kairi asked. "I'd rather not waste time."

"Dark corridor," answered Axel, Roxas, and Xion simultaneously.

"Can we do that?" Sora asked.

"Sure, I'll take us right to the Grey Area," Xion said. "One trip isn't going to hurt us, we can always star shard out."

"Why can't we star shard in?" Riku asked, not even concerned with the darkness in his own heart, but others.

"The darkness will interfere," Namine answered. "If you remember, we had trouble the other day. A dark corridor has less of a chance of going wrong."

"What about the computer room?" Roxas asked. "That was on our list of things to do, too, and that's in a completely different area…"

"Maybe we won't have to waste time with that," Xion said. "We can hope."

"We could split up," Axel said. "One group to the computer room and one to the Hallway of Bedrooms."

"Except you need me for both of those," Xion said.

"Oh! When did you become miss-high-and-mighty?"

"Well, _you _shouldn't be messing with any of the _X_'s in front of any doors, and I'm also the one who knows how to run the program."

Axel growled, but conceded she was right.

She formed a corridor. "To the Grey Area, if the Hallway of Bedrooms is too infested, we'll try and get as close to the computer room as we can and go from there."

"As close as we can?" Sora asked.

"That whole hallway is corridor-proofed," Roxas supplied.

"Ah."  
Riku stepped through the corridor that Xion was holding open, deciding that there wasn't any more conversation that needed to happen.

They got to the Grey Area well enough. It wasn't too infested with darkness.

The corridor closed behind them. They were facing the hall of bedrooms.

Axel summoned his chakrams and Riku spun around, waiting to summon his Keyblade until he was sure he would need to blow cover of who he was.

There were two people sitting on the couches of the Grey Area. Not friendly people.

Considering one was Marluxia and the other was Larxene. Riku had only dealt with Marluxia before, but Namine had dealt with Larxene and Riku wouldn't let Larxene do anything else to her.

"Why it's Axel," Larxene cooed. She looked different. She was more haggard and the darkness was leaving traces on her skin. Her once green eyes now had a golden tinge.

Riku maneuvered his way up next to Axel, putting himself between Larxene and Namine. Roxas and Sora flanked Riku and Axel, having been some of the last two to come out of the corridor in the first place.

Another corridor formed behind him and Riku turned his head a little.

Xion and Kairi were both gone.

Namine put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

Well, that was one way to continue the mission. Riku hoped Larxene and Marluxia hadn't noticed.

Larxene was standing now, and Marluxia was getting to his feet. Marluxia didn't look too different, though his eyes seemed unfocused. Perhaps he really was going crazy.

"Are you two just living here?" Axel asked.

"Why yes," Larxene said, still in a condescending tone, as if Axel had asked the most obvious question in the Worlds. "It's a lot easier now that we've gotten the Castle to stop eating itself with its own darkness."  
"You managed to activate the DTP?" Axel asked.

"Oh, is that what it's called?" Larxene asked, her voice now sing-song and innocent sounding, though Riku knew she was far from that. She put a finger to her chin as if she were thinking. Then she turned back to Axel and the others and glared.

"Well, regardless, we activated it. However, there's just enough darkness to keep other things at bay! And when that's not enough, I have these!"

She raised her hand and several Dusks showed up.

Axel gasped. Riku groaned internally. Sora and Roxas both gritted their teeth loudly. Namine alone remained silent.

"They're not the smartest things in the Worlds," Larxene said. "They'll listen to anyone they still think is a Nobody. And I'm not going to tell them otherwise."

Standing around just talking to Larxene wasn't going to last forever. They needed to give Xion and Kairi time to get the journals. They were going to have to fight.

Riku summoned his Keyblade. Within seconds, Roxas and Sora had done the same.

"Ooh!" Larxene gasped. "Three Keyblades! Marly, whatever shall we do?"

Marly?

Marluxia chuckled and summoned his scythe in a flurry of flower petals. Larxene grinned and summoned her knives, her knuckles crackling with electricity. She chucked them at the group, but Axel threw a chakram to intercept them.

"Split up!" Riku shouted. "Let's get them!"

He ducked for cover behind a couch, then threw Blizzaga at Larxene. He tried to locate Namine, but she looked like she had taken cover as well.

Larxene could not get to her!


	19. Breaking and Entering

**Author's Note: **Don't have anything to say but enjoy!

* * *

_Hallway of Bedrooms: Kairi_

"Why did you bring me?" Kairi asked.

"You were the closest person I could form a corridor around," Xion replied, looking up and down the Hallway of Bedrooms. "I figured while they all deal with Marluxia and Larxene, you and I could get started on getting the journals. Clearly this area isn't too affected by the darkness."

_Good luck, _Namine spoke in Kairi's head.

_You, too_, Kairi replied, knowing Namine's history with Larxene.

Xion opened her door.

"What are you doing?" Kairi asked.

"Grabbing more cloaks since we're here. You never know."

Kairi nodded and turned around to open Roxas' door. The room was as messy as the last time she'd been through here. She grabbed a few cloaks off the racks and crammed them as best as she could into her bag.

"I wish there were more ways of protecting ourselves against the darkness," she mused as she rejoined Xion in the hallway.

Xion shrugged. "I don't mind them."

Kairi sighed. There was something about them just being plain and boring, Namine summed it up pretty well when she said they were boring to draw.

Xion went to the room next to hers.

"Larxene's room," she said. "We need to get this one over with fast."

"There's no lock," Kairi said.

"Yeah," Xion said, backing up and pulling out her Keyblade anyway. "A lot of the other Organization members started making their doors not have locks because they were paranoid about Roxas' and my Keyblades. However, I still know how to get into the rooms, it just takes longer."

She snickered a bit as she said this.

"Thunder!" she said, hitting a point on the upper left-hand corner of the door. She repeated the spell in the top center, the upper right-hand corner, and then four other spots on the door. It popped open.

"So if it's as simple as a Thunder spell…" Kairi began.

"It would be terribly obvious that you were getting into someone's room."

They walked in. The room looked lived-in, which wasn't much of a surprise considering Larxene had met them in the Grey Area. Xion looked in the bedside table and Kairi checked the desk. Then Xion checked under the bed and the mattress while Kairi rifled through the closet.

"Nothing."

"Do you think it's because she's here?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know, but let's not stay here," Xion replied.

They left the room and Kairi walked directly across the hall.

"Don't bother," Xion said. "That's Marluxia's room. Unless you can summon flower petals, there's no way we're getting in."

"Oh."

The room next to Larxene's had a lock. Xion got it with her Keyblade. The room was unnaturally tidy. But that tidiness was beneficial, considering the journal was sitting right on the bedside table.

"We're in luck on this one!" Xion said, pocketing the journal.

The room across the hall from that room was Demyx's. Kairi remembered that she had to sing to this door to open it because Riku had slept here the last time she'd passed through. However, the verse she sang didn't make the door open. She frowned. Xion tried a different song, it still didn't open.

"Sometimes, this door is picky about the song," Xion grumbled.

"Seriously?" Kairi groaned. She tried a different song, more upbeat.

Xion tried a softer song.

After a few more tries between the two of them, Kairi hummed a few bars of a song Namine had been listening to a week or so ago. The door opened.

"Dumb door and it's dumb tastes," Xion muttered. "Demyx's journal better'd be worth it, though I doubt it…"

Kairi wondered why they were even bothering with Demyx's journal if Xion didn't have high prospects for it. However, she supposed that it might just be best to get all the information they could and just hope.

Demyx's journal was buried in his bedside table drawer, but it didn't take them too long to find it. They moved on.

"Axel has Saix's journal," Xion said. "I saw him with it. Um… do you want to grab Axel some more cloaks, he tends to go through his fast, I'll grab Riku some from Zexion's room?"

"How?" Kairi asked, looking at the knob with no lock.

"Light the knob on fire," Xion said. "Axel's a showoff. Use Firaga at least."

"Mmkay."

The door opened easily once Kairi had cast Firaga. The room appeared to have been tidied up since the last time she'd been through here. She supposed the Dusks were responsible for that. Axel's closet was full of cloaks, despite how many times he'd come through and nabbed some. The Dusks were probably responsible for that, too. She grabbed a few and crammed them into her now very full bag and ducked back out into the hallway. Xion was standing in front of a door, staring at it.

"It's a puzzle," she said as Kairi walked up behind her. "It's Lexaeus' door."

The puzzle was a square block with moveable pieces. The point was to arrange them in a certain way. Kairi's school had had these for ways to relax, though sometimes they could be more frustrating than the work they were trying to relax from. She stared at it for a couple of moments as Xion fiddled with the pieces.

"It's the dumbest thing," Xion muttered. "I can calculate battle strategies faster than some people can summon a Keyblade, but I'm completely stumped on this."

"Here, let me try," Kairi said.

She moved a couple of pieces around, then she saw the solution. "Aha!" She futzed a bit more and the door opened.

"I… props," Xion said.

"Thanks."

After all of that, however, they could not find Lexaeus' journal. They checked everywhere, even under the mattress and behind the headboard. Nothing.

"That is frustrating," Xion said.

"Tell me about it."

"I suppose we just go to the next room."

Xion removed a glowing _X _out from in front of Vexen's door, but then they realized they couldn't get in anyway because it involved a handprint and a retinal scanner. Xion wondered if they might be able to send a replica by at some later time. To make up for that, though, Xaldin's door could be unlocked via the Keyblade and his journal was in his bedside table drawer.

Xion shot a Blizzara at the bulls-eye on Xigbar's door and they found his journal under his pillow.

Then they found themselves looking at Xemnas' door. It was covered in several glowing _X_'s. Xion tried to remove one, but it didn't disappear like the other ones had.

"I'm not surprised," she muttered.

"Neither am I," Kairi added. "So do we call it good and go help the others."

"Yeah, and when we get a chance, someone should have Sora notify the others about what journals we could and couldn't get."

Kairi grinned.

"What?" Xion asked.

"You think Sora keeps the phone," Kairi said. She pulled the handset out of her pocket.

"That's great!" Xion said.

"Let me just send a message off, then," Kairi said, starting to type away.

"Goodness, how much are you telling them!"

"What rooms we couldn't get into and then what rooms didn't have a journal once we got in," Kairi said. "It's not actually that much."

"Just seems like a lot," Xion said.

Kairi finished the message and then sent it to Aqua, Mickey, and Cid. That should cover the basics.

"All right, let's go," Xion said as soon as Kairi had pocketed the phone.

Kairi nodded.

"Should we be ready for a combo?" she asked.

"Ooh, that's a good idea," Xion agreed. "Spell Weaver should be decent."

"You would know, you know Larxene and Marluxia better than I do."

"Actually, I don't," Xion said. "By the time I was actually going on missions and stuff, the two of them had been sent to Castle Oblivion."

"Oh," Kairi said. "Which means…"

"Which means Sora got to them before they could come back."

"Yeah."

Kairi and Xion made their way back down the hallway, as they got closer, the sounds of battle got louder. As expected, the others hadn't been able to talk their way out of a fight.

"Take stock, then combo," Xion said.

Kairi looked around. Sora, Riku, and Namine were all dealing with Marluxia. Roxas and Axel were taking on Larxene. No one looked like they were going to stop any time soon. Also, Axel was the only one with his hood still up. Kairi could only recognize everyone else by their Keyblades, or the lack thereof in Namine's case.

"Spell Weaver to Larxene," Kairi said. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Xion said.

They gripped hands and let the power surge through them. They floated up into the air and their blades hovered in front of them, controlled telekinetically. This was ideal, considering Larxene's brutality. The extra distance was easily the difference between a knife that missed, and a knife that hit.

However, she appeared to be focusing on Axel more than Roxas. This meant that sometimes, Roxas could use that to his advantage because she wasn't paying attention to him, but other times it didn't work too well because she dodged out of the way as part of one of her own attacks. This ended up being how it worked for Kairi and Xion as well, though they had a bit more luck, considering Spell Weaver.

But the combo only lasted so long. By that point, Larxene was angry from the flying Keyblades (Roxas had taken to using a lot of Strike Raids.)

"I suppose now's a good a time as ever," she spat. She raised her hand and summoned a type of Nobody that Kairi didn't recognize. They were lithe like the Dusks or the Dancers, but they had a fluid look that Kairi had seen in the Floods, back when they were dealing with the Unversed. They had tails and very long claws, like knives.

"Whoa!" Axel said. "What's with those?"

"Look at my new ally," Larxene sneered.

"You shouldn't be able to do that," Axel said.

Larxene rolled her eyes.

"You're not a Nobody, again, are you?" Roxas asked.

Larxene laughed a high-pitched, grating laugh. "The darkness is giving me so many things to play with," she said. "The Thieves one of them."

She gestured that they should start attacking. Kairi bared her Keyblade against the one that came for her. However, they liked to stick in pairs and while she was batting one away, another came up behind her and got her on the back. She didn't think it actually cut through the cloak, but it still hurt all the same. However, as that happened, Larxene let out a sharp shout.

"Ha!" Axel said, tossing his chakrams in two different directions at the Thieves that had come to him. "You can't use your Nobodies to attack us because it damages your own heart."

Larxene growled.

"I will have to overcome that!" she said.

Axel snorted. He crossed the distance between himself and Larxene. "Sora, now!" he shouted. As he said that, Sora, Riku, and Namine all sent Marluxia flying towards the others. Axel put a hand on each of them and then they disappeared.

"What was that?" Kairi asked.

"I think he activated a star shard," Riku said. "All I know was that as we each took on one of them, Axel said that when he gave the signal, we were to make sure Marluxia ended up near him."

Axel came back, pocketing a star shard.

"Where'd you take them?" Namine asked.

"A corridor-proof hallway," he said. "At least, I hope it's still corridor-proof. We'd better get a move on. I'm assuming you two disappeared to go get the journals."

"Yeah," Kairi said. "We got the ones we could."

Axel nodded. "Xion?"

Xion formed a corridor wordlessly and they all walked through. They weren't right in front of the gummi ship, but it was within sight.

"Initially, I was hoping we could camp out in the Grey Area for a bit," Axel said. "But clearly that's not going to happen anytime soon."

"What are we going to do about Larxene and Marluxia?" Roxas asked.

"We'll leave them alone until we have reason to deal with them more," Riku said. "Not worth our time yet."


	20. A Separate Mission

**Author's Note: **Different plotline! We'll return to those in The World that Never Was later.

* * *

_Castle Oblivion, Aqua_

"I assure you, this whole Castle has been combed over multiple times," 34 said. "I'm not sure you'll find what you're looking for."

"Neither are we," Aqua said. "But we have to try."

"This used to be our home," Terra said.

"Be our guest, but all traces of Xehanort were likely erased when Castle Oblivion was created," 34 said.

"I know," Aqua said, dejectedly.

"If there's anything to be found, Aqua can find it!" Ven encouraged.

Aqua found herself laughing a little, not at Ven, but almost out of relief.

"Thanks, Ven."

Ven smiled.

"I'll leave you to your search," 34 said with a nod. He disappeared down a corridor.

"What are the odds we'll actually find anything?" Terra asked.

"I can't be sure," Aqua replied.

"Xemnas never actually spent much time here," Terra said.

Aqua didn't ask how he knew that. She knew it had something to do with his heart and all the trauma it had been through.

They started making their way through the white hallways.

"It's weird that this was once our home," Ven said. "I don't even recognize it. Not with my eyes anyway. My heart sort of recognizes it, but I can't be sure if that's because it used to be Land of Departure, or because I spent so long sleeping here."

Aqua pursed her lips.

"He tried to find you here," Terra said.

Aqua didn't have to ask who "he" was.

"What?" Ven asked.

"Well, he didn't come personally. He never liked doing the dirty work himself if he didn't have to. And he couldn't remember who you were, but he tried to find you."

"How much do you remember?" Aqua asked.

Terra shrugged. "Bits and pieces mostly, but if something bothered him for a while, or he thought about it a lot, I remember it."

"I don't remember much from Roxas," Ven said. "But I know I was with him, because I don't remember what Sora did at that time at all. I think if I had been with Sora, I might have found me sooner."

They looked like they had been walking in circles, but Aqua knew they weren't. That was the point of Castle Oblivion, that unwelcome visitors would be lost in oblivion. The only reason why the Organization had managed was because of the complex surveillance system they'd installed, combined with Vexen Replicas with impeccable memories. But there were still places even they could not find, as Axel had found out.

She gripped Master Eraqus' Keyblade in her hand—the Master Keeper—knowing that it was the Key to this entire castle, and she could not let them get lost.

They first went to one of the research rooms, the one in the basement. However, all the information contained in there had little to do with Xehanort and had much to do with using Riku as a means to overthrow Marluxia's plans. There was also a blurb about Riku having the scent of the Superior.

Aqua racked her brain for what that would mean and remembered that Riku had once been possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, which would probably leave lasting traces.

Terra found a journal from Lexaeus and pocketed it.

Nothing else was of use.

So, they set to walking again. Aqua began to get the feeling that they were not walking as far as they might had she not held the Master Keeper. It was as if the Castle was reforming itself around them so they did not have to waste any extra energy.

"Do you think our rooms are still here?" Ven asked as they walked.

"I doubt it," Terra said.

"Aw," Ven groaned.

"It was the only way to save the World," Aqua said quietly.

They kept walking. They didn't go up or down stairs, though Aqua knew there were still travelling through a couple dozen floors. Again, it was the work of the Master Keeper.

She knew that they were on the thirteenth floor, because this was where the other research room was. Many things were on the thirteenth floor. The main computer room, though not the surveillance room. She also knew there were two other computer rooms throughout the Castle, the Replicating Room being one of them, and that was on the third floor. The pod room was up here as well.

"This area has been tainted by the darkness," Terra said.

"Riku and Namine told me that they had to come and deal with a darkness expulsion on the level of what we were dealing with in Hollow Bastion," Ven said. "I guess that would have made it this place's DCP."

Aqua cringed internally as Ven casually called the Castle "this place," though she couldn't think of any other term he might have for it.

"I hope what we're looking for hasn't been destroyed," Terra said.

"Unfortunately, that would have been the purpose of the DCP," Aqua said, frowning.

However, the computer room and the research room, combined through their own separate door, were completely intact.

In the research room, Aqua found it a bit odd to see a chair just sitting off to the side. It was a small chair and it looked very forlorn.

Then Aqua remembered Namine mentioning that she'd been born in this Castle and forced to remain here as she did the Organization's bidding.

They sifted through more papers and research. Most of what was contained here were plans of using Sora to overthrow the Organization, a plan that had clearly not worked.

"He knew who Marluxia and Larxene would be traitors from the start," Terra said quietly. "A fact for which I find incredibly ironic, for they were _waiting _on Larxene to turn into a Nobody so he could use her powers to his own ends. Clearly that didn't last."

Terra chuckled. Aqua was glad he could find some amusement out of the situation, though she herself didn't quite see the irony he was seeing.

Something beeped in Aqua's pocket. It took her a moment to remember that she was the one with the phone. She'd purposefully found pants with bigger pockets for that very reason. Not that Ven or Terra minded keeping things in their pockets, but Aqua wanted that ability, too. She pulled the phone out of her pocket. She had a message. She scrolled through the message—a list of the journals Sora and his friends had and had not been able to acquire. The wording made Aqua question if Sora had actually been the one to send it, or if perhaps it had been Kairi or Riku.

"Hmm, they're missing Larxene's, Marluxia's, Lexaeus', Vexen's, and Xemnas'," Aqua read. "Larxene's, Marluxia's, and Lexaeus' were all missing. They couldn't get into Vexen's or Xemnas' rooms."

"We should go there," Terra said. "Try to get into those other rooms."

"What makes you think we'll be able to?" Aqua asked.

"I can't explain it," Terra said, shaking his head. "I just have a feeling."

"Hey Terra," Ven said, patting Terra's arm. "Didn't you find Lexaeus' journal?"

Terra pulled out the small red book. "I suppose I did."

"I'll notify the others of that when we're done here," Aqua said, putting the phone away.

They went back to rifling through the desks, seeing if anything was useful.

"What's this?" Ven asked, holding up a book.

"Oh goodness, Ven, that's a book on sadism," Aqua said. "Torture, basically."

Ven frowned but ran the pages through his fingers anyway, a disgusted look on his face. However, he stopped three-quarters of the way through.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, pulling out a thin white book. He opened that and looked through those pages.

"Definitely a girl's handwriting," Aqua said.

"Larxene's?" Terra asked.

"What are the odds?" Aqua mused. But even as she asked that, she had to wonder if perhaps the Castle was responsible. It knew they were looking for things so it was providing what it could.

Ven pocketed the journal anyway and after a bit the three of them gave up their search. Everything they found related to Marluxia's and Larxene's plans. The fact that Xemnas had never come here himself was showing. Aqua knew that there was no point looking on the computers. She trusted the Vexen Replicas to tell the truth when she asked if there was anything of matter on them and they told her that there was nothing of use.

"Well, I suppose we'll go to the World That Never Was next," Terra said. "See about those rooms."

"Where did he grow up?" Aqua asked.

"Destiny Islands."

But it was neither Terra nor Ven who answered.

The three of them spun around and found themselves faced with a Xehanort Remnant. Or the Xehanort Remnant, as no one had really figured out yet if they were one or many.

"You won't find anything about me there," he said, sounding amused. "That town is so simple and most everyone has forgotten who I truly am—as I am remembered as the boy who left. Though, now Destiny Islands is a different place, more accustomed to comings and goings, but that is no matter. What matters is that your efforts to find my research remain in vain. At the moment, they are no more than amusing. And I tell you with utmost sincerity that nothing you want is here. Nor will you be able to find it in the World that Never Was, for the door anything useful lies behind is one that a Keyblade cannot open. And anything you find in Hollow Bastion will mostly contain information about hearts."

"Have you come here just to taunt us?" Aqua asked.

The Remnant laughed.

"There are multiple reasons for me being here…"

"Leave," Terra said, interrupting the Remnant.

Aqua looked at Terra in shock, having not expected that from him.

The Remnant looked a little taken aback as well, apparently not used to being interrupted, nor just blatantly told to leave.

"I won't say it again," Terra said, his voice growing more stern. "You will leave me and my friends alone."

Aqua saw the energy spark around his fingertips and knew he was close to summoning his Keyblade. She already had the Master Keeper out and wondered if the Remnant recognized the Keyblade of the man he'd once called friend. Xehanort did have a hand in Master Eraqus' death.

"Very well," the Remnant said. "Your search is in vain here. I can work out my other plans at a later time."

He disappeared.

"Whoa!" Ven exclaimed.

Terra was staring at the place where the Remnant had been.

"I didn't actually expect that to work," he said.

"What do you suppose his other plans are?" Ven asked.

Terra grimaced. "Making a vessel, surely."

"It's a little worrisome that he knows we're searching," Aqua said. "But now I'm suspicious, do you think he's just telling us there's nothing here because there's actually nothing here, or is he trying to cover something up."

"I can't be sure," Terra said.

"So let's just go to the World that Never Was," Ven said. "We'll get done what we need to get done there, and then we'll figure out where else may be of use."

"Destiny Islands probably won't have anything," Aqua said. "So he's not wrong on that one."

"Maybe look at the Badlands?" Ven asked. "We used to do a lot of training there. And he was always so big on creating a second Keyblade War."

Aqua and Terra looked at Ven in shock.

"I thought you didn't remember much from your time with Master Xehanort," Aqua said.

Ven shrugged. "I remember bits and pieces."

"I suppose we could check that out then," Aqua said. "Master Yen Sid said he was a Seeker, which means he would have gone to many Worlds."

"Didn't he also say that Xehanort destroyed a lot of people?" Ven said, frowning a little. "Back when he was younger?"

"Yeah, there was something about removing people who could get in his way," Terra said. "But I'm not sure if we'll be able to find anything in so much destruction."

"There may be traces, still," Aqua said.

"Well then let's get out of here then," Terra said. "I think we've found all that we're going to find."

Aqua frowned. "I'm only wary because the Remnant was so insistent that there was nothing here."

"The other half of this floor is lost to the darkness," Terra said. "Or, rather, anything that would have been of value."

"Do you think it took important things with it?" Aqua asked, trusting Terra's instincts.

"We won't know."

She sighed.

Ven pulled out the star shard. "To the World that Never Was?"


	21. Drive!

**Author's Note: **If you haven't noticed by now... I POV swap a lot. But it gives you a more well-rounded story in my opinion. Enjoy!

* * *

_The World that Never Was: Roxas_

They still had a bit to go before the gummi ship. But they'd gotten what they'd came for. Roxas had also gotten in a good battle against Larxene. Now he was hungry and looking forward to a nice chair in the gummi ship. Like Axel, he'd sort of been hoping that they could've stayed in the Grey Area for a bit. But there was no way that was going to happen given Larxene and Marluxia's presence—not without getting rid of them. And Riku said they weren't worth the time at the moment.

Then, to everyone's dismay, a Xehanort Remnant appeared outside of the ship, effectively blocking their path to it.

"Are you serious right now?" Sora growled.

Roxas summoned his Keyblade.

And so did everyone else. (Well, okay, Axel summoned his chakrams and Roxas wasn't sure what Namine did. She might have pulled out her knife, but Roxas doubted it considering it was useless against the Remnant.)

The Remnant looked smug. Roxas wondered if it had another emotion.

"For a moment, I thought I was going to have to interfere with your search," he said. "But it would appear that some of my former members have done that job for me."

Roxas tried to keep his face straight, not wanting to let on that Xion and Kairi had still managed their intended search. What was odd, was that he knew. Then again, it wasn't really that odd, this was Xehanort they were talking about and he tended to know everything.

"Not that it really matters," the Remnant continued. "The thing you seek is behind a door that not even the Keyblade can get through."

Roxas frowned now, not liking the sound of that.

"Now, for other matters of business."

He summoned a ridiculous amount of Neoshadows.  
Roxas scoffed. Was that all?

He held a hand out to Xion, who rolled her eyes, but handed him her Keyblade without any questions.

"Show off," she muttered.

Roxas smirked.

He leapt up into the air, getting rid of a couple of Neoshadows even then. This would be easy so long as it was just Neoshadows. He could take care of this himself in under ten minutes provided no more showed up.

Though, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Riku was helping out. Well, that would make it go all the quicker.

As he was mid-jump, slicing through Neoshadows like they were butter, he felt something tug on his heart. He ignored it and kept fighting. But then there was another tug, a bigger one. This one brought him crashing to the ground, he barely managed to use the Keyblades to break his fall.

"What's… happening…?"

"Fight it!" Riku shouted.

Another tug brought him to his hands and knees, not even the Keyblades could keep him propped up.

"Summoning my Keyblade back," Xion warned.

He grunted.

Her Keyblade disappeared from his left hand. Not that it mattered. It probably would have disappeared from his hand anyway.

He clutched his hand to his chest, not liking this feeling in the slightest. He tried to do what Riku said and fight it. But how?

The tugging stopped. Roxas looked up at the Remnant, trying to figure out why. Xion was currently attacking him. He wasn't blocking with any weapon, just with blasts of Dark Firaga and Dark Blizzaga. Roxas took his distraction as an opportunity to stand up and try to gain his bearings again.

"Riku!" Namine shouted.

But her cry was not a cry for help, it was a heads-up. She eliminated all of the Heartless in between where Riku was standing and the gummi ship. Riku didn't need any more prodding than that. He took off running. Xion and Sora both were dealing with the Remnant at that point.

Namine's steps faltered. But then in a flash of light, she disappeared. Kairi began glowing with soft light. She opened her eyes, which were completely white, and smirked. She raised her hand and a dozen creatures made of light appeared out of the ground. She set them on the Remnant.

Axel came up behind Roxas and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Did he just go after my heart?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah," Axel said. "Very rude of him, don't you think?"

Roxas swallowed.

"And dumb, he should know you've got too much light in you." At this, Axel elbowed Roxas in the gut. Roxas frowned. He was already sick to his stomach enough.

The light forms had reached the Remnant and were clearly causing problems. Riku had started up the gummi ship and gotten it into the sky. The flight pattern was rocky looking, but that was probably because Riku wasn't trying to go very far. He hovered over Roxas and Axel and dropped the rope ladder.

"After you," Axel said.

Roxas took a grip of the rungs. He started climbing. He felt Axel start up behind him. Before climbing into the gummi ship, Roxas got a clear look at the Remnant's face. He looked positively livid.

"Axel, control the ladder," Riku said. "We'll need to get the others. Roxas, just brace yourself."

Roxas nodded and took a seat by the window so he could still see what was going on.

There were now three birds made out of light pestering the Remnant. A falcon, an owl, and a hawk. The birds had enabled Sora and Xion to back off of the Remnant, which gave Riku a clear path to get them up into the ship.

"Good, now I won't have to yell at them," Riku muttered.

"That attack of Kairi and Namine's…" Axel began.

"Is quite amazing," Riku finished.

Kairi had not moved from the spot she was standing at. She was aiming her Keyblade at the Remnant. A lion came pounding out and charged at him.

Xion came and stood behind Roxas.

"We'll have to wait for that attack to finish!" Sora said, pulling himself onto the ship.

"I know that," Riku snapped. "How much energy do you think they've got?"

"They feed off of us," Sora said. "Not our energy, but our presence. If that weren't a Xehanort Remnant, I'd say Kairi and Namine would finish him off."

"But because it's a Remnant?" Roxas prodded.

"No actual clue." Sora shrugged.

After the lion came a wolf.

The Xehanort Remnant summoned some of the Shadow Creepers that it had been fond of at Disney Castle. They distracted the lion, the wolf, and the hawk, but the falcon and the owl would not leave him alone.

Then Kairi summoned a panther, followed by a fox. They began helping the lion, the wolf, and the hawk with the Shadow Creepers.

"Isn't each one of those animals a representation of us?" Xion asked.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "I'm the lion."

"I'm the wolf," Riku said.

"I want to say I'm the hawk," Xion said.

"Hundred munny says I'm the fox," Axel said.

Roxas looked at the panther. Probably. It would make sense.

The falcon and the owl returned to Kairi's Keyblade. The other five light forms continued fighting the Shadow Creepers. The Remnant now seemed set on getting to her.

"We need to get her," Sora said, his voice tense.

"Them," Riku corrected, his voice equally tense.

The Shadow Creepers parted to let the Remnant through, the lion and the wolf immediately tried to intercept him.

Kairi's eyes stopped glowing and Namine reappeared beside her. Namine fumbled in her pocket for a bit, probably looking for an ether.

"Swing low," Axel said. "I'm just going to pick one of them up. Sora, can you…?"

"Xion, drive," Riku said, already running out of his seat.

"That works too," Axel said.

They hauled the ladder back in as Xion maneuvered them right above Kairi and Namine. The other light forms had disappeared, Kairi and Namine having run out of power. There was nothing standing in the way of the Xehanort Remnant and them.

Roxas turned around in his seat to see if Axel or Riku might need help. But from the looks of things, they'd braced themselves all right. Axel caught ahold of Namine and Riku got Kairi. The two girls were lugged onto the ship.

"All clear?" Xion asked.

"Go!" Riku replied.

Xion took off before the Remnant could interfere.

"Everyone okay?" Riku asked.

Namine tossed up an ether. She and Kairi exchanged glances.

"Yeah, we're good," Kairi said.

"Roxas?" Riku asked.

"Uh, I think I'm okay," he said. "Should I be worried? I've never had this happen before."

"Just be careful. He may have tempered your darkness to make you a more viable vessel."

"You can't be nearly as messed up as me," Axel said, shrugging. "Though, if you find yourself being able to summon a dark corridor or maybe bring some Samurais to your aid…"

"Well, I don't want to test it now," Roxas said.

"Can someone else drive?" Xion asked.

"Here," Sora said, standing up. "I'll set it to autopilot."

"To where?" Riku asked.

"A place where we can chill for a bit, probably," Sora said. "We've got a lot of stuff to sift through, right?"

"We only managed to get four journals," Kairi said. "Every other one was either missing, or behind a door we couldn't get to."

Sora replaced Xion and Xion came over next to Roxas. She slid her hand into his. He felt a little better.

"There, we're set to go to Olympus Coliseum," Sora said. "The path looks clear. I can always change course later."

"I suppose we should read through what we've got though," Riku said. "Even if there are only four journals."

Kairi nodded and pulled the four out of her bag. "We've got Xigbar's, Xaldin's, Demyx's, and Luxord's."

"We also got everyone more cloaks," Xion said.

She let go of Roxas' hand in order to pull cloaks out of her bag. Kairi did the same. They'd really gotten everyone more cloaks, which was good.

"Excellent!" Axel said.

"Everyone take a journal?" Sora said. "Well, ish."

Namine grabbed the journal on top—Xigbar's.

"Here, hand me Xaldin's," Xion said. "Roxas and I can look through that."

"Sounds good to me," Roxas said, glad to have another pair of eyes.

"I'll work with Namine," Riku said.

"I've still got a bit of Saix's journal to read through," Axel said. "I suppose now's a good a time as ever."

"Here," Kairi said, handing Sora Demyx's journal, keeping Luxord's for herself.

"Does anyone need to keep an eye on the autopilot?" Xion asked, her eyes looking towards the control panel as she asked.

"We should be fine, barring any gummi Heartless," Sora said.

"Oh don't say that," Riku said.

"It's cool, we'll know if we've got trouble," Sora said.

"Right, so we keep an eye on the autopilot," Xion said.

"Also, we should sleep somewhere in there," Riku said.

"I've put off reading this long enough," Axel said. "If I don't finish it now, I don't think I'll ever finish it."

"We'll sleep when we're done," Xion said.

"Yeah," Namine agreed.

So they all settled into seats, a person or two to every journal. Roxas was glad Xion had picked Xaldin's, not wanting to have to try and figure out what Demyx had been writing about. No offense to Demyx, but his condolences went out to Sora.

"You okay?" Xion whispered.

"I… I think so," Roxas said. "But I can't be sure."

She took his hand. She looked like she was about to say something, but the words never did come out of her mouth. Instead, she just squeezed his hand and laid Xaldin's journal over her lap. Roxas leaned over to read as well. He was glad for something else to focus on, no longer wanting to think about the Xehanort Remnant.


	22. Mako Poisoned

**Author's Note: **Because I had to :)

* * *

_Midgar: Tifa_

"Midgar?" Tifa mused as she watched the city appear before them. "Why here?"

"Maintenance for the bike," Cloud replied. "I usually drop it off here."

"Oh, I didn't know."

Which meant that the last time he'd had any sort of maintenance done on the bike, it was before he started traveling with her.

"I would like to just take it back to the guy I bought it from, but he's no longer on the World where I first found him."

"Oh, I know where he is!" Tifa exclaimed.

Cloud turned around to look at her so fast the bike nearly swerved off of the road. Nearly. Tifa was used to this, however.

"You know the guy I bought Fenrir from?" Cloud asked.

"Guy named Barret, right? Has a little girl?"

"Yeah, that's the one… how?"

"I ran into him quite some time ago. He was in Nibelheim, they were trying to stay away from Shinra. I gave them a tour of Mt. Nibel. A few months later I realized that I could get them away from Shinra, so I took them to Twilight Town."

"Small World," Cloud muttered.

They drove for a bit more, but then Cloud _actually _swerved off the road. He parked the bike and looked back at Tifa.

"I get it now," he said. "I ran into them far away from home. He said his World had fallen into darkness—which ours did. So, when the Worlds were restored, he woke up somewhere around here and then realized that he wanted to be away from Shinra."

Tifa's eyes widened and she hushed him.

"We are _spitting _distance from Midgar, Cloud."

"Oh, right." He still rolled his eyes like he didn't care, however.

Tifa sighed.

"Huh, we should go visit him sometime," Cloud said. "Since we both know him."  
"Yeah!" Tifa said. "I'd love to see Marlene again."

"I'll add it to our list of places to stop," Cloud said, revving the bike and getting them back on the road to Midgar. "But since we're here, I might as well get the bike looked at."

Tifa laughed.

They dropped off the bike at a little shop in Sector 5 and went to a grill across the street to eat. Cloud and Tifa sat at their booth quietly, realizing that they were too hungry for anymore conversation. Despite how hungry she was, Tifa couldn't help but notice all the crude men who were looking at her. Sighing, she zipped up her jacket, almost wishing that Cloud would do something about them—anything. Yet, at the same time, she wished that she could just get rid of the creeps on her own. She instead focused on the news headline that Shinra was being attacked periodically by terrorists.

_About time_, Tifa thought to herself.

Cloud swore.

Tifa looked back over at him. He'd spilled his soda all over his lap. He stood up and emptied his pockets of the valuables that could get damaged by the liquid—like his wallet and his phone. Muttering to himself, he picked up his bag.

"I'll be back," he said, heading to the bathroom.

Tifa laughed a little, they'd have to make a stop somewhere to do laundry at this rate. Though, soda was significantly easier to get out of clothing than blood.

She hailed down a server so she could get a towel to mop things up. The guy kept looking at her just the same as some of the other patrons had been and she wished first that they hadn't even come to this place and second that she could just punch him. She settled for wrenching the towel out of his hands and sopping up the soda herself.

Then Cloud's phone rang. Tifa reached for it gladly, very thankful for the interruption.

"Hello?"

"Hey! It's Zack!"

Tifa laughed. "Yeah, I recognize you."

"You guys been through Nibelheim, yet?"

"No," Tifa answered. "We got sidetracked in Agrabah."

"Oh. The Sephiroth-problem?"

"Yeah," Tifa sighed.

"Well, Aerith and I are gonna head to Gongaga, and we figured we'd stop in Nibelheim as well, especially considering Cloud's mom loves the company—she's like Aerith."

"Yeah," Tifa agreed wistfully. Maybe since they were in Midgar, they could just hop over to Nibelheim—they couldn't really drive straight there considering there was an ocean in their way—but they were already pretty close. Tifa wouldn't mind seeing Cloud's mom.

"Anyway, mostly we were just wondering," Zack said. "Oh, Aerith says to follow your hunches. Whatever that means. Or, rather, I wish I knew what _she _meant by that…"

Aerith said something that Tifa couldn't catch. Tifa figured it must not be for her because Zack didn't relay it.

"Oh, why are you answering the phone anyway?" Zack asked. "I totally called Cloud?"

"He's in the restroom at the moment," Tifa answered.

"Oh, okay then. I suppose it's probably better, he never answers his phone."

Tifa and Zack laughed about that for a bit. Then Zack had to go. Tifa finished mopping up the table as Cloud came back.

"Zack called," she told him. "He says they're swinging through Nibelheim."

"Oh."

Cloud didn't say anything else and Tifa decided not to push it. They finished their food and then picked the bike back up. Cloud paid the guy and they left.

As they got back on the bike, Tifa almost asked where they were heading next. Though she knew that sometimes Cloud really didn't have a place in mind. Maybe they'd actually go to Nibelheim, or Twilight Town.

They drove through the city, though Cloud looked a little on-edge. Tifa groaned internally, hoping it wasn't Sephiroth.

"Oh, Aerith said that we're supposed to follow our hunches," Tifa said, chiding herself for not relaying _that _part earlier.

"Heh, hang on."

Tifa gripped on tighter as Cloud went down a side-street that didn't even look big enough for the bike. Tifa knew Cloud wouldn't be able to get his swords out.

"Can that even support our weight?" she asked, looking ahead of them to the decrepit-looking street. She knew as well as anyone from this World that Midgar was built on a plate and underneath it were the slums. There were also parts of the plate that weren't as strong as others and Tifa could nearly bet that they were in one of those parts.

Sure enough, the plate didn't hold up. Cloud, Tifa, and the bike all went crashing through the ground to whatever lay below.

They were now on a steep dirt path leading downwards. Tifa clutched on tighter as Cloud maneuvered the bike down the fine dirt which provided little traction. They were falling downwards more than they were driving downwards.

They found themselves in front of a church. It was a large church, though decrepit looking. They were in the slums. The hairs on the back of Tifa's neck rose.

"Is this one of your hunches?" she asked as Cloud parked the bike just outside the church.

"Yes," Cloud answered. He got off the bike and started towards the church. Sighing, Tifa got off and followed him.

"Why are we doing this?" Tifa asked.

"I can't explain it," Cloud said. "I just…"

He didn't finish his sentence. At least he hadn't mentioned Sephiroth, which he always did when he was sure of that, thankfully.

They walked into the church, their shoes echoing on the hardwood floor. Cloud's heavy boots made much more noise than Tifa's sneakers did, but even her shoes seemed noisy here.

Someone sniffled.

Tifa spun around, trying to find the source of the noise. Simultaneously, she whacked Cloud on the arm. He had stopped, too, hearing the same sniffle as she had.

There! In the back pew! There was a boy of about ten or eleven. He had dirty brown hair and equally dirty skin. He looked like he'd been here for a while. He was clutching a photograph in his hands. He didn't even appear to have noticed Tifa and Cloud walking in.

Tifa walked over there.

"Hey," she said. "Are you okay?"

The boy clutched his face and groaned.

"Cloud…" Tifa said.

"Give him a potion," Cloud answered.

Of course! Tifa reached into her pocket and pulled out the small green bottle.

"Hey," she said, softer this time. "Drink this, you'll feel better."

"Are you from Shinra?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"No…" Tifa said, unsure of why he was asking.

"Are you from AVALANCE?" He had yet to look up from the photograph on his lap.

"No." Tifa didn't even know what that was.

The boy took the potion, though he struggled to get the cap off. Tifa reached over and popped the top, knowing he had to be weak to not be able to open a potion—they were made easy to open for a reason.

He drained it all in two gulps. He licked his lips and looked up at Tifa for the first time.

"Are you an angel?" he asked.

Tifa laughed at that. "Usually my friend Aerith is the one who gets those questions," she said. Cloud came up behind her and knelt down next to the pew he was sitting on.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked.

"Denzel," the boy said with a cough.

Tifa frowned. He'd just had a potion, he shouldn't be coughing. Unless he was sick. He looked malnourished.

"I'm Cloud, and this is Tifa."

"Hullo."

"How did you come to be here?" Tifa asked. She knew the slums were bad, but under the dirt, this kid's clothes looked like they had been well-made originally.

"Avalanche attacked Shinra," he said. "They destroyed my home… my parents…" He sniffled. "Ms. Ruvi took me in, but then something inside Shinra backfired and she was taken from me, too!"

In those few sentences, his voice had oscillated between a whisper, a mumble, and a whine. And Tifa didn't judge him for it in the slightest. The kid had probably been a Company Kid, which meant Shinra was so a part of his life he didn't know how awful it was. So when Shinra started having problems with terrorists, his entire life had been turned upside down.

Literally.

"Why don't you come with us," Tifa said. "We can get you fixed up."

"Tifa," Cloud argued. "We…"

"Let's take him to Aerith's place," she said, careful not to mention Hollow Bastion as the kid probably hadn't heard too much of other Worlds. Shinra didn't like talk of other Worlds, though Midgar was the hotspot for the rumors. "If we go now, we might catch them before they leave for Zack's parents'."

Cloud looked between Tifa and Denzel. He nodded.

"Come on," Tifa said, offering out her hand. "I want to take you somewhere better."

Denzel took her hand and Tifa was saddened to feel how weak his grip was. He clutched the photograph tightly, however, so perhaps he was just hesitant.

"My spear," he said.

"This?" Cloud asked, picking up a metal pipe with a chiseled tip. Denzel nodded.

Denzel stood up, but stumbled forward. Tifa caught him.

"He's clearly not well," Tifa said, looking at Cloud. She tried to keep any sort of distress out of her voice, less it aggravate Denzel.

Cloud handed Tifa the spear and picked Denzel up. Denzel fell into Cloud's grasp, too weak to put up any sort of a fight. Cloud moved quickly towards the bike, knowing that time was of the essence. Tifa followed behind. Cloud set Denzel on the bike and climbed up in front of him. Tifa got on behind Denzel to secure his place.

"Grab on," Cloud instructed.

Denzel only fell forward, so Tifa grabbed onto him instead. He was shaking. She breathed a Cure into him, hoping that maybe it would do some good. Cloud started up the bike and Denzel jumped a bit, but he settled into the rumble easily enough.

Cloud practically popped a wheelie as he formed the portal to take them back to Hollow Bastion. Tifa would probably have to explain to Denzel later about the different Worlds. She wasn't going to bring him back to Midgar unless he remembered he had family somewhere. But if he was falling sick in the slums, she doubted it.

They arrived in Hollow Bastion in a matter of minutes. Tifa got off the bike first and helped Denzel off. He was no more ready to stand now than he was earlier. Cloud clambered off and picked Denzel up again.

"He's light," Cloud said.

"I know," Tifa said.

He needed to get to Aerith. Tifa hoped that Aerith and Zack hadn't already left.

Was Denzel the reason why Aerith had talked about following hunches? How could she have known? But… it was Aerith.

Cloud started walking to the house; Tifa ran ahead to get the door.


	23. Snippets that Show

_Journals_

Author: Xigbar

I don't quite see why he's trying to make us all keep these darn things. I mean, I know the old coot doesn't have most of his memories, but why make the rest of us suffer? If he thinks I'm going to write out our entire past so he can read it, he's got another think coming. I'm not letting him touch this. Besides, I remember all of our previous plans and I don't intend to forget them. The "sharp" in my nickname doesn't just stand for my good shots. I suppose at least he's making us all do this. Not that he'd needed to tell Vexen… Vexen writes all over everything. Maybe now he'll be more organized. That'll help keep us all sane. 50 munny that Xaldin and Lexaeus don't keep up on this. Why would they? Neither of them is one for words. I'll fill this thing up out of spite.

.

Author: Xigbar

Oh, let's gather Xehanort Clones. Not that that's what he's calling it, but that's completely what's going on. Okay, I'll play along with your contingency plan, old coot, since forming the χ-blade backfired on you. I'll help gather more members. I don't quite know how he's planning to making clones out of us—but that's certainly his intention. It's all part of his plan for immortality in his new domain. But how do I feel about becoming part Xehanort? I'm not so sure. I suppose I've already signed up for the job and backing out now would probably end in my elimination. So long as I can keep my own brain and thoughts, I suppose I'm okay with it. He needs to keep my memory intact, anyway. I'm the only one who remembers all of his plans.

There are six of us now, and he wants there to be thirteen. We will have to double our numbers. I'll be looking. There's probably some gullible Nobody who I can con into this.

.

Author: Xigbar

It's amusing how hard he's trying to remember things. I don't even think he consciously knows that he's doing it. How many hearts do you have in there oh dear Superior? Is Terra in there? Is it just you, old coot? You took a Keyblade to your own heart after you did that to me… do you even have a heart? I know you don't know anything from old-man Xehanort, all you've got is the memories beginning from when I found your unconscious behind in Radiant Garden. How did that fight with your friend go? Clearly not well.

Now that we can go back to Radiant Garden—not that it's so Radiant anymore—because the cloaks protect us, he goes back there a lot. To his thinking room. He just sits there and talks to the Keyblade and the armor, like it's going to talk back. Though, sometimes, I swear I do hear something talking back to him. I don't understand it. He can't be learning anything from those visits—can he?

.

Author: Xaldin

He keeps promising us completeness, but he says we do not have all the pieces yet for that to happen. What is he waiting for? There are nine of us. Does he need all thirteen people? Or is he looking for someone specific. The girl is still a Somebody, but she will make a strong Nobody in time. It is strength he is after, is it not? There is some part of this that I do not know. Does Xigbar know? Or is it only in the Superior's head?

.

Author: Xigbar

He's called to Castle Oblivion for some reason and I don't know why. Not that I claim to know everything that goes on in that fragmented heart of his, but ever since we've gotten recon back regarding that place, he's been itching to take it over. Vexen's all for it, since he wants more research space, but Mister Master seems to have more complex plans. This is going to be some experiment of his, I can feel it.

Perhaps it has something to do with that chamber of his back in Hollow Bastion. He's convinced there might be something in Castle Oblivion that's dear to him, but I honestly have no clue. That's not Xehanort talking, not the Xehanort I know. I think that's Terra.

.

Author: Xigbar

I'm part Xehanort. There's no denying it now. The yellow eye is the only visual marker—and that can happen just from too much exposure to the darkness. But I can feel it in my heart. Every time I look in the mirror though now, I can see him. I didn't sign up for this, but there really is no turning back now. He hasn't touched my other eye, if that means anything. I think it's too scarred for that. Heh, I suppose, though, that's his doing, too. Whether I like it or not, he owns me.

.

Author: Lexaeus

I can feel the unrest coming from some of the lower members. They grow as impatient as the rest of us. Though we do not appear to age, time still wears away at our hearts. What is the Superior waiting for?

.

Author: Xigbar

I'd always known the two of them were up to something. That was quite the set up they had there. But now they've taken the fall. I thought for sure their destructions were immanent, but that's not the case. The boss labelled the Diviner a recusant—he owns him more than he owns me! Flamesilocks has gone and marked his own face. He's stuck with all the dirty jobs now, no doubt about that. I wonder why the boss didn't mark him as well. Perhaps he wants the unpredictability. But why?

.

Author: Saix

I find that I no longer want to rebel. And that fact alone scares me.

.

Author: Xigbar

Saix has wormed his way through the ranks almost beautifully. I'd be suspicious of him if I didn't know just how much Xehanort owns him. Xaldin and Vexen are very suspicious, Lexaeus and Zexion are no better. I guess I'm not the only one who's part Xehanort though now. Saix shares that fate with me.

.

Author: Demyx

I don't think I'm one for song lyrics. They just don't seem to come to me. Oh well, I'll focus on the music and someone else can deal with the lyrics. (That is, if I could focus on the music without x-face yelling at me to do more work.) I'm starting to regret coming into this place.

.

Author: Luxord

Demyx is not good at cards. He should have learned that by now. Regardless, he owes me 200 munny. He'll be scraping that up during missions. However, Lexaeus is a worthy opponent. Thankfully, I had the munny to play him. Perhaps we can play again sometime.

.

Author: Xigbar

Now that we've got Keyblade Wielders as part of our ranks, a lot of people put more security into their doors. Particularly the paranoid ones. Vexen's got multiple layers of security to keep his door locked. Zexion's door has been an illusion for some time now, I wonder if he knows that both Flamesilocks and the lazy water-bender have figured that out. But Lexaeus, Demyx, Marluxia, and Larxene have all added ways that are not locks to open their doors. I've done the same, mostly because it gives me an excuse to shoot things in the hallway. I'll become a poor shot if I don't practice.

.

Author: Larxene

It is funny how we all fall into patterns from our lives before. These patterns come so easily to all of us. They are something we still have. Of course, my patterns are hardly effective against those with no hearts. And Axel seems impenetrable as far as information goes. I wish I could figure out what side he is truly on. Is he an ally of mine, or not? Because if he is not for us, he is against us.

.

Author: Saix

I find that I just blindly follow orders some days. Xemnas ordered me to tell Axel to eliminate the traitors. Xemnas fears rebellion, does he know who the traitors even are? Axel will figure it out surely. Perhaps he may also use this as an excuse to further our own plans. Some days I have enough clarity to remember that those plans exist.

.

Author: Lexaeus

I wonder what Marluxia and Larxene are up to. I imagine that they are planning to overthrow the Organization. Zexion says not to worry, it will all work out in the end. But is he right? More importantly, what part does Axel play in all of this?

At the same time, these past years have been interesting to say the least. Perhaps an overthrow is not a bad thing. But does that make me a traitor? Traitors must be eliminated.

.

Author: Xigbar

What happened in Castle Oblivion? Have we seriously lost half of our ranks? The boss wanted the traitors to be eliminated. Were there seriously five traitors? Or were some of them still loyal to the Organization, but Axel took them out anyway for his own means? Are him and Saix still up to something, is there even such a possibility?

.

Author: Xigbar

Sora…Roxas…Xion…Ven. Why do they all look the same to me? Especially, why does Xion look like Ven? They are all connected, but I have yet to figure out how.

.

Author: Xigbar

Roxas is maturing at an impressive rate. His face, the way he handles the Keyblade, it's all exactly the same as Ven. The worlds seem so divided and alone, but there's always that steady thread there to connect them. And we Nobodies can never escape the things we did as humans. So it goes

.

Author: Saix

There is a part of Xehanort in my heart. I did not fully know the gravity of my punishment, but now I see what has truly become of me. There is no turning back now.

.

Author: Luxord

The air is charged. I can feel it. You go out on a big gamble at a time like this, and you're going to lose big. That said, it's betting against the worst odds that nets you the biggest win. I'm eager to see how this hand plays out.

.

Author: Xigbar

The gears of Xemnas' plans have begun to spin wild since the loss of half our membership at Castle Oblivion. The results are there, but can this state of affairs fairly be called a success? If Kingdom Hearts can be said to possess a mind of its own, it is surely rejecting Xemnas—no, rejecting Xehanort. Roxas left the Organization today.

.

Author: Xigbar

I doubt that Flamesilocks will be able to carry out that order to bring Roxas back or eliminate him. We lost both of them long ago. Roxas grew volatile and Flamesilocks has never been the same since their attempt at a coup. Why did the boss not label him too? Well, not my problem. I'm not going after the tiger if Flamesilocks fails, or refuses.

.

Author: Xaldin

I am uneasy about this plan for Kingdom Hearts. It seems less viable now that we are relying on Sora as opposed to our own members. I want a complete heart. I also want to prove that I am more than that worm, Saix. The boss still desires more members, perhaps I can create for him a strong Nobody. There is a beast on a world that I have been observing who work well.

.

Author: Saix

It is mind-opening how many things the Superior had not told me because of my so-called "friendship" with Axel. There is a small part of me that feels remorse about this, but then I remember that I do not have a heart to feel so I move on. His plan for Kingdom Hearts' completion is merely a secondary (or perhaps tertiary) plan. Our hearts do not need to be complete for the plans to be enacted. He is trying to create a new world—of his own making—and he will use Kingdom Hearts to do so. We will also have immortality in this new world. This would not have sat well with Axel.

.

Author: Xigbar

It's only a matter of time. Little Sora's got it in for us. I wonder if Roxas can see through Sora to any of us. Or is it all Sora's doing? I never have been able to figure out just whose heart is talking. Regardless, I sense my end coming soon. So long as I go out protecting Mister Master, I suppose I've done my job. But I might as well have some fun while I'm at it.


	24. Three Gunblades

_Hollow Bastion: Leon, Age 28_

Leon heard Cloud's motorcycle arrive and set down his coffee mug.

"Didn't Zack just call them?" Rinoa asked, poking her head downstairs.

"Yeah," Leon said. "Right before they left…"

The door swung open and Cloud walked in, carrying a young boy. Leon stood up.

"Aerith here?" Cloud asked.

Leon shook his head. "Rinoa!" he called.

Rinoa poked her head down again.

"We need you."

Rinoa's head disappeared, but she came down the stairs a few seconds later, rolling up her sleeves as she did.

"Put him on the couch," she said.

Cloud did so. Tifa came in the door, carrying the bags and a metal pole. Leon decided not to ask. That question could come later.

"What happened?" Rinoa asked.

"We found him in a not too great spot of Midgar," Tifa said. "The most we got out of him was that he has no family."

Rinoa frowned and started looking him over.

"His name is Denzel," Tifa added lamely.

Leon went into the kitchen. "Do you need anything?" he asked.

"I guess Aerith's med-kit to be safe," Rinoa said. "I may need the potions…"

"Tifa, you don't think it's mako-poisoning, do you?" Cloud asked quietly.

"Oh goodness…" Tifa gasped.

Leon poked his head back out of the kitchen.

"What now?"

"He's from our home World," Cloud said. "Mako's where we get most of our energy. It's harmless when processed correctly. But when the reactors backfire, the effects of the unrefined mako are very poisonous."

"I've heard of a lot of towns having problems because the reactors were leaking," Tifa said. "Cloud and I even show the traces, and the reactor by us was completely functional."

"How do you treat it?" Rinoa asked. "I don't want to pump Cures into him if they're not going to work."

"What about the heal materia?" Leon asked, walking over to the fridge. Aerith kept her med-kit on top of it.

"That might work," Tifa said.

Leon brought the med-kit out. He set it on the table and opened it up. The bright green materia was sitting in one of the corners. Leon picked it up and handed it to Rinoa.

"Before I try this," she said. "Do either of you have a good reason why this might be mako-poisoning and not just some other sickness?"

"His hometown's having trouble with the reactors," Cloud said.

"More like a terrorist group is blowing them up," Tifa corrected.

"Why?" Leon asked.

"Protest against Shinra," Tifa said. "They feel the reactors are draining the planet's energy—which they are, but…"

"Blowing up the reactors is a stupid thing to do," Cloud finished.

"I'll say," Rinoa said, rolling her eyes. "As if the Worlds don't have enough trouble."

"You aren't touching my materia, are you?" Yuffie said, pounding down the stairs.

"No, this one's Aerith's," Leon said.

Rinoa put her fingers over her lips. "Doing a healing," she said.

Yuffie quieted. "Oh."

Leon was grateful for that. Yuffie had outgrown most of her blatant disrespect for people outside of Aerith and Cloud, but sometimes she could still be rather snarky. However, even she knew that healings were important.

"We should get him out of his clothes," Cloud said. "They're easily mako drenched."

"You don't have any t-shirts, do you?" Leon said, looking at Yuffie. Yuffie was actually the closest one to Denzel's size.

She shook her head. "I don't have anything that isn't fit for a girl, sorry."

"I'll go grab him one of my shirts," Leon said. "It'll be big on him, but better than what he's got. We can always go to the store later and get him a couple of changes of clothes that actually fit him."

"You said he doesn't have any family?" Rinoa said. Both she and Denzel were bathed in the green light from the Cure materia. Apparently, it wasn't taking so much concentration that she couldn't make simple conversation.

"Not that I could gather," Tifa said.

"Is he going to have to stay here?" Yuffie asked.

Leon couldn't decide if she was upset about that.

"Aerith's call," he answered. "It's her house."

Before Yuffie could argue, he went upstairs to get Denzel a new shirt. He wished he had a pair of shorts to lend him, but he only had pants that would be too long. He knew Zack had a pair or two of shorts, but there was no telling if he'd left them here. Leon settled for grabbing a quilt out of the hallway closet.

Oh! But Zell had shorts! Leon ducked into the room where Zell was staying and was actually surprised that Zell's stuff had been put away in the dresser. Just last week it had been all over the place. Either his mercenary training had kicked in, or someone had gotten on his case. He grabbed a pair of the shorts, knowing Zell wouldn't mind too much. Then he started back down the stairs.

He came back just in time to hear Denzel ask if Rinoa was an angel.

She smiled. "Not quite, though the wings do make it look that way."

"He asked me that, too," Tifa said.

"He's a little out of it, still," Rinoa said. "But I think he's doing better."

"Here we go," Leon said, offering out the shirt and the shorts. "Oh, he'll need a belt, won't he?"

"Here." Leon was surprised that it was Yuffie who was offering. "It'll help with his health."

Rinoa smiled and took the belt from her. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"We should get him cleaned up," Tifa said.

"I'll do it," Cloud said, taking the clothes and draping them over his shoulder.

"Do you need help?" Leon asked.

Cloud shook his head. Rinoa nodded and moved away from the couch. Cloud picked Denzel back up. Rinoa carefully set the belt with the other clothes.

"He has yet to let go of the photo," Rinoa said.

"I'll see if I can talk it away from him for twenty minutes," Cloud said. He started up the stairs.

"Where is everyone else?" Tifa asked.

"Cid's over at Ienzo's place trying to make sense of the newest findings of Xehanort's research," Leon answered. "Quistis, Zell, and Shera all went to the castle to see about the Heartless."

"Of which we have significantly less, I might add," Rinoa said, going over and putting the heal materia back in Aerith's med kit. "Cloud, do you want a potion?" she called.

"Should be fine," he answered.

"We were going to start work on some more houses," Leon said. "But we're mostly waiting on Cid."

"Do you guys need the help?" Tifa asked.

Leon shook his head. "We just got a late start today."

"Someone should call Aerith," Rinoa said. "Let her know."

"On it," Leon said. "She'll probably want to come back."

"Tell her that we've got a handle on it," Rinoa said.

"I can't guarantee she'll listen," Leon said.

Rinoa shrugged.

"Tell her Cloud's taking care of Denzel," Tifa said. "Aerith might concede to let Cloud do something."

Leon snorted and dialed Zack's number. Unlike Tifa and Cloud, who each needed a phone for reasons involving Cloud having a history of disappearing, Zack and Aerith only needed one phone between them.

"Yo," Zack answered.

"So if you were intending to meet up with Cloud and Tifa in Nibelheim…"

"They're taking detours?" Zack asked.

"Well, they're here," Leon said. "They brought a kid."

"What?"

"They found him in some place called Midgar and they brought him here."

"What were they doing in Midgar?" Zack asked.

"How should I know?" Leon said. "But apparently the kid doesn't have any family and Tifa thinks he has mako poisoning."

"Mako poisoning?!" Zack shouted. "Now I get why Aerith wants people to mention injuries first!"

Leon held the phone ever-so-slightly away from his ear until Zack was done ranting.

"Rinoa used the heal materia, we've got him a change of clothes and Cloud's giving him a bath."

"Oh, well, that's a good start then," Zack said. "Mostly he'll need sleep."

Leon could hear Aerith on the other end, "Do we need to go back? I'm sure your parents would understand…"

"Nah, Aerith, it sounds like they've got a handle on things."

"Are you sure?"

"We're sure," Leon said.

"See? Leon says they're sure."

"Well, if they need anything…"

"I'll let you know." Leon figured that should take care of everything… oh!

"Anything else we should know about mako poisoning?"

"Sleep," Zack said. "Oh, hold on…"

"Hello?" Aerith said.

"Yes?"

"So, I'm with Zack with the sleep part," she said. "Is that why they brought him back from Midgar?"

"That and he has no family apparently," Leon said.

"Oh dear."

"Yuffie wants to know if he'll be staying here, but I said that was your call."

"If not," Tifa said. "I'm sure that Cloud and I can keep him with us. Or…"

"He can stay with us for the time being," Aerith said. "Certainly. At the very least, until he gets better. Then maybe we can find him a home or… or something."

"Okay."

"Zack and I will probably be back by tomorrow night," Aerith said.

"We can handle it," Leon assured her. "Promise."

"Okay, let me know."  
"Of course."

They hung up.

"Well, I convinced her not to come back," Leon said. "Mostly because Zack's the one who answered first."

"Good," Tifa said. "She needs a vacation."

"Why does it look like Yuffie's been sleeping in the other guest room?" Cloud called.

"Because I have," Yuffie said. "It's nice having my own room, even for a little bit. Put him on the other bed. I'll move my stuff back."

"Okay."

Leon headed upstairs to see how Cloud and Denzel were doing. Cloud had gotten him into the bed and was tucking him in.

"I'm going to get him another frame for this," he said, holding up the photo.

"Are those his parents?" Leon asked, taking the photo, but being wary of the broken glass.

"I'd imagine," Cloud said. "I think that's why he was clutching it so tightly, at least, until he fell asleep. I'm actually going to get it now while he's asleep."

"We've got Heartless!" Yuffie shouted.

Cloud swore.

"Mostly because my swords are still in my bike," he told Leon as they went down the stairs.

"Can you fight with a gunblade?" Leon asked. "I have three."

"What? How?"

"I've made more over the years. They're still good," Leon replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, that'll be quicker."

So Leon grabbed one of his older blades which was under the stairs and handed it to Cloud, then he grabbed his own blade which was by the door.

"I'll stay back with Denzel," Tifa said. "Just in case he wakes up. We wouldn't want him to panic."

"Good idea," Leon said.

Then he, Cloud, Rinoa, and Yuffie all piled out of the door to take care of the Heartless.


	25. Maybe He Will Find Us

_Gummi Ship Outside Olympus Coliseum: Namine_

Namine and Riku read through Xigbar's journal at a reasonable rate. Riku read faster than Namine, but she swore that he slowed down purely so that they'd read at the same pace. Or he just took time to think in between the pages.

Namine found herself having more sympathy for Xigbar, though she had absolutely no idea what his true motives are.

It did please her to know that they had something Xehanort didn't know about. She had yet to figure out how he'd known they were digging up parts of his past. But he had been so sure that they couldn't get Xigbar's journal. True, they had not been able to get his own journal, which was behind a door that Kairi and Xion could not get through. But Xehanort had also known that Xigbar's journal would contain important information and he was positive that Xigbar would be thoughtful enough to keep the journal safe. While yes, the door could not be opened by a Keyblade, it only required a good shot, of which Xion had managed.

Their possession of Xigbar's journal gave them complete (or near-complete) plans of Xehanort's cloning plan—only slightly original, given the fact that he'd reused it with Replicas. It involved making them part Xehanort, which Xigbar had yet to explain, but surely it had something to do with the people harboring Xehanort in their hearts.

"Who do you suppose the girl that he keeps talking about is?" Roxas asked.

Namine looked up at them.

"Beats me," Xion replied.

"Larxene," Axel replied, not looking up from Saix's journal. "They were watching her for a while."

"Oh."

Axel made a face, but it wasn't because of Larxene, it was from something he was reading. Though, Namine had made that very face at Larxene before.

"Man, Demyx's journal isn't proving to be very useful," Sora muttered.

"I sang a song for that!" Xion groaned.

"I mean, he regretted joining the Organization," Sora said.

"Because we made him work or something else?" Axel asked.

Namine noticed how sometimes, Axel still used "we" in relation to the Organization. Perhaps some things never left a person.

"I think it had to do mostly with Saix," Sora said.

Axel grimaced.

"Luxord's isn't much better," Kairi said. "He mostly has score cards and a record of who owes who munny. He said Lexaeus was a worthy opponent, but that's the most I've got."

"Guess they all couldn't be useful," Xion muttered.

Namine went back to reading. She was sure Riku had already finished both of the pages in front of them.

Xigbar suspected Terra being inside Xemnas. Apparently, Xemnas also went back to Radiant Garden to talk with what had to have been Aqua's Keyblade armor. Xigbar eavesdropped occasionally. Xigbar did a lot of eavesdropping. Also, Xemnas was called to Castle Oblivion (Namine shuddered a little at the words) most likely because of Ven. Namine found herself skimming that part though, because she didn't want to think about Castle Oblivion. Surely Riku would see if there was anything important.

"Maybe he wasn't all gone," Axel murmured.

"Hmm?" Roxas asked, looking up.

"Saix," Axel said. "I always thought that he'd made a conscious decision to start brownnosing. Perhaps, perhaps it wasn't all his fault…"

"He does do that to people," Riku said quietly.

Axel's mouth twitched, but he didn't reply.

"That is the vaguest entry ever," Kairi said with a frown.

"What?" Sora asked.

"I don't even know what he's talking about," Kairi said. "He's just speaking vaguely about gambles and stuff."

"That's fairly normal," Axel said. "He could be talking about Castle Oblivion, he could be talking about Roxas and Xion, he could be talking about Xemnas. You never know with Luxord."

"Yeah," Kairi snorted.

"Xaldin tried to turn the Beast into a Nobody?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah," Sora said. "I helped prevent that. The King did too, if I remember correctly…"

"Why don't I remember that, though?" Roxas asked.

"You were probably asleep," Xion suggested.

"Yeah, I guess so…"

"You done with these pages?" Riku asked.

"Yeah."

He turned the page and they went back to reading. Everyone was quiet for a bit. It was Namine herself who broke the next silence. She gasped and pointed to the page in front of her.

_"I'm part Xehanort."_

"But he doesn't say how," she said. "Do you think it's because of the amount of time they spent together?"

"I'm more willing to bet dark magic," Riku said.

"What now?" Sora asked.

"Xigbar being part Xehanort," Namine answered.

Axel snorted. "Not surprised."

"Oh, that's just awful, I don't care who you are…" Namine murmured. "Do you think he was scared? Could he even _be _scared?"

"I don't know," Riku said.

She forced herself to keep reading, but Xigbar said nothing about how it had happened, just that it had.

The next journal entry of interest concerned Axel and Saix.

"Axel," Namine pressed.

"Yeah?"

"What did you and Saix do to try and overthrow the Organization?"

Axel's eyes darkened. "I'd rather not talk about it."

She pursed her lips. "It's just…"

"What?" Axel's voice was flat.

"This entry here… Xigbar says that Xemnas labeled Saix as a recusant."

Axel looked down. "I know."

"What's that?" Sora asked.

"Someone who refuses to submit to authority," Axel answered. "But it wasn't just a random mark. Something about it _changed _Saix."

Namine swallowed. She felt that Axel needed to know this, but she had to choose her words carefully. "Xigbar also said that he was confused as to why you weren't marked as well, but perhaps it was because Xemnas wanted your unpredictability."

Axel's nostrils flared, but he still said nothing.

"It's why I got landed with the icky jobs, that's for sure," he muttered after a bit.

Namine couldn't think of anything to say. Even Roxas and Xion were quiet.

Riku turned the page and they kept reading.

"Saix had part of Xehanort, too," Axel said sometime later. He thumped the page he was reading. "Says so right here."

Sora tallied a couple of things up on his fingers, but then went back to Demyx's journal.

"Well, there's nothing more in here," Kairi said, closing Luxord's journal. "The last entry is about how Luxord was going to stand up for the Organization to his last, because those were the cards he'd had."

Sora frowned. "I'm out of stuff in Demyx's too. There wasn't anything of use. Though, I might try and find the Great Demetrius, just in case he's looking for some of these pieces of music."

"Neither of them were in the Organization as long as the rest," Axel said. "Out of the journals' we've got."

"We're out of stuff for Xaldin's too," Roxas said.

"Xigbar said that he didn't expect Xaldin to write very much," Namine said.

"Not surprised," Xion said.

"Well, I've still got stuff with Saix's, so hush," Axel said.

Namine looked back to the journal half in her lap and half in Riku's. They still had a long way to go, too. More than Axel. Some of that was probably because Xigbar had been in the Organization longer than Saix, but most of it was actually because Axel had been working his way through Saix's over the past couple of days.

Namine forced herself to keep reading. Maybe Xigbar would say something else about the clones. She snorted when she realized that the entry in front of her was Xigbar discussing how Saix shared the fate of Xehanort being a part of him just like Xigbar did.

She smirked at the entry regarding many of the Organization members putting not-locks on their doors—all because of the fear of the Keyblade.

Axel chucked Saix's journal across the room. Sora, who had moved over to the drivers' seat, looked back at him confusedly.

"Is everything okay?" Kairi asked.

"Sorry, it's just… _sickening _to read about how much Xehanort changed him," Axel spat. "He tells us all we need to reform Kingdom Hearts so that we can be complete, but the only people who can do that are Roxas and Xion, but whatever, really. Except, then, as it turns out, Kingdom Hearts was just another contingency plan for his own immortality. That lying, cheating… and he realized it too late."

Namine caught on that the last "he" Axel had mentioned was not actually Xehanort, but Saix. She frowned. There was a part of her that still remembered that she was only in her current existence because she had spent so much time trying to bring people back. (Not that she would trade that for anything.) However, she wished she could bring Saix back for Axel. Or perhaps it was bring Isa back for Lea.

Axel walked over and picked Saix's journal back up, going back to reading. Sora went back to driving, Kairi acting as co-pilot. Roxas and Xion had fallen asleep, probably a good thing for both of them. Namine could not remember the last time Xion had slept, before Disney Castle, surely? And Roxas'd had a close encounter with Xehanort…

She went back to reading. They skimmed over the parts about Castle Oblivion, because most of that was already known and the rest of it was speculation. Xigbar wondered if Saix had the capacity to still be rebellious. He wondered why Sora, Roxas, Xion, and Ven all looked the same.

"Sorry, Kairi, about what Saix did to you," Axel said. "I didn't expect him to take you from me."

"It's okay," Kairi said. "Mostly I was just locked in a jail cell and Dusks brought me food."

Sora growled.

Namine and Riku got to the part where Roxas left the Organization, which meant that there were only so many journal entries left as Xigbar's own time as a Nobody was ticking away.

"Well, that was somewhat useful," Axel said, leaning back in his chair. "Not entirely, but somewhat." He chuckled. "He really thought he could defeat you, Sora."

"Not when I had my friends by my side," Sora replied without missing a beat.

Xigbar had not thought that Axel would be able to bring Roxas back. He was right. But he was also wrong. Axel had brought Roxas back in a different way.

Xigbar's views on his own destruction were intriguing to read. He knew it was coming. He knew that protecting Xemnas was his job. But he also figured he could have some fun. Namine wondered if that was the case.

The journal ended.

"So I guess dark magic," Namine said.

"Hmm?" Riku asked.

"The reason why Xigbar, and Saix, both had a part of Xehanort in them?"

"I guess so," Riku said, with a small shrug. "It's the best I can figure."

"I suppose it doesn't exactly matter how," Sora said. "Not at the moment, anyway. We just need a list of _who_."

"Xigbar only mentioned Saix sharing his fate," Namine said. "And he said golden eyes were one of the traits, though sometimes that can happen because of exposure to the darkness."

"But then would it be fair to say that anyone without golden eyes is not a threat?" Kairi asked.

"Yes," Riku responded.

"So who does that leave us with?" Kairi asked.

"Larxene's got golden eyes," Sora said. "Ish."

"That's from the darkness," Axel said. "I can assure you. That last Xehanort Remnant practically confirmed they weren't a problem."

"So we go back to ignoring them unless they become a bigger problem."

"But if it's not them, who is it?" Sora prodded. "Saix is gone…"

Axel frowned.

"It's Xigbar," Namine said quietly. "He left Castle Oblivion before Roxas could actually get to him."

"Great, he's _not _the person I want to be looking for," Axel grumbled.

"Right," Sora grumbled.

"Maybe we won't have to go looking for him," Riku said. "He might come looking for us."


	26. Hometowns

_Gongaga: Zack_

"Huh, my phone's ringing," Zack mused.

"Answer it!" Aerith said.

Zack's mom chuckled.

Zack checked the caller ID.

"Oh, it's the gang back at Hollow Bastion."

"Answer it!" Aerith urged.

Zack rolled his eyes and flipped the phone open.

"Yo."

"So, if you were intending to meet up with Cloud and Tifa in Nibelheim…"

It was Leon.

"They're taking detours?" Zack asked, having already talked to Tifa about this.

"Well, they're here," Leon said, sounding like it was much more than just that. "They brought a kid."

Zack frowned. "What?"

"They found him in some place called Midgar and they brought him here."

Leon had no idea the depth of what he was talking about. Absolutely no clue. Cloud and Tifa had been in Midgar! Probably as Zack had called them! They were so close!

"What were they doing in Midgar?" he asked.

Aerith frowned. Zack's mom looked at Zack with raised eyebrows.

"How should I know?" Leon asked. "But apparently the kid doesn't have any family and Tifa thinks he has mako poisoning."

Zack's jaw dropped. "Mako poisoning!?" he said, a little louder than intended. His dad came in from the other room. His mom started wringing her hands. "Now I get why Aerith wants people to mention injuries first…" he groaned.

Aerith bit her lip.

"Rinoa used the heal materia," Leon said after a bit. "We've got him a change of clothes and Cloud's giving him a bath."

Zack ticked off things on his mental list of what to do in the event of mako poisoning. Most kids who grew up near a reactor ended up learning, but Zack'd had intensive discussions with Angeal about it. Cloud and Tifa probably knew a fair bit.

"I guess that's a good start then," he said. "Mostly he'll need sleep."

"Do we need to go back?" Aerith interjected. "I'm sure your parents would understand…"

At this, Aerith looked between Zack's parents. Zack's mom pursed her lips. His dad was frowning.

"Nah, Aerith," Zack said, shaking his head. "It sounds like they've got a handle on things." This was true. Leon didn't sound panicked, only that he was relaying information. Which probably meant they were calling to give him and Aerith a heads up, rather than a call for help.

"Are you sure?" Aerith asked.

"You worry too much," Zack mouthed.

"We're sure," Leon said on the other end.

"See?" Zack said, grinning. "Leon says they're sure."

"Well, if they need anything," Aerith said.

"I'll let you know," Leon said.

Clearly he could hear Aerith.

"Anything else we should know about mako poisoning?" Leon asked after a moment.

"Sleep," Zack said.

Aerith motioned for him to give her the phone.

"Oh, hold on…" Zack said.

He handed the phone to Aerith. She held it to her ear gingerly, with both hands. Zack thought it was rather cute.

"Hello?" she said.

"Yes?" Leon said on the other end. Zack might need to turn the volume down…

"I'm with Zack on the sleep part," Aerith said.

Zack wondered why Aerith was interjecting about mako poisoning. Arguably, he was the one who knew the most about mako poisoning in the current conversation.

"Is that why they brought him back from Midgar?" she asked.

Oh, she was asking about something completely different.

"That and he has no family apparently," Leon said.

Zack grimaced. Poor kid. He knew Leon had mentioned that before, but he'd said mako poisoning right after, which completely derailed Zack's thoughts on the matter.

Aerith sighed. "Oh dear."

"Yuffie wants to know if he'll be staying here, but I said that was your call."

There was a bit of a pause. Zack thought that Tifa might be shouting? Someone was talking on the other end that he couldn't hear. Probably Tifa. Or maybe Yuffie? They were the only two who shouted.

"He can stay with us for the time being," Aerith said. "Certainly. At the very least, until he gets better. Then we can find him a home or…" she licked her lips, thinking. "Or something," she finished.

"Okay," Leon said.

"Zack and I will probably be back by tomorrow night," Aerith insisted.

Zack rolled his eyes. She was worrying again.

"We can handle it," he heard Leon say. "Promise."

"Okay, let me know."

"Of course."  
Aerith closed the phone and handed it back to Zack.

"Don't worry!" he told her. "It sounds like they've got the hang of things. They used the heal materia, and whoever figured to give him a change of clothes and a bath was onto the right idea."

"Do you think they went looking for the kid," Zack's dad asked.

Zack shook his head. "Knowing Cloud, they stumbled across him."

"I told them to follow their hunches," Aerith said. "Given how much time was in between you calling them before and Leon calling us…"

"They had enough time to find the kid, realize he was sick, and then take him back to Hollow Bastion," Zack finished.

Zack's mom was eyeing Aerith, almost suspicious of that happening. Aerith, however, did not even draw too much attention to her own hunches, only some. Zack was completely unfazed.

"Will you two need to be leaving?" Zack's dad asked. "I missed that part."

"If we do, they'll tell us. From the sounds of it, if we go back when we intended, nothing's going to change. Leon and Rinoa are there."

"So are Quistis and Zell," Aerith said.

"Good, does this mean you're not worrying?" Zack asked her.

"Well, my presence isn't necessary, but I wish I'd thought to ask Leon for a name, it's easier to send good thoughts that way."

"I can call him back…"

"No, no, it will be fine."

"This is a complete change of subject," Zack's mom said. "But I don't feel like cooking, how about we go out to eat?"

"I like this plan!" Zack said.

"Whatever works," Aerith said with a small shrug.

"Give me twenty minutes," Zack's dad said, disappearing back into the other room which he sometimes used as an office.

xx

The next day found Zack and Aerith still going into Nibelheim, despite both of their low expectations for Cloud and Tifa to actually show up.

"My bet is that they're still in Hollow Bastion," Zack said. "Unless Sephiroth tries to show up. Cloud never likes Sephiroth showing up around children."

Aerith squeezed Zack's hand tighter. He couldn't really come up with a reason of why she would. But he was kind of glad all the same.

"Still, this way we can tell Ms. Strife what Cloud's been up to," Aerith said. "She would like that."

Zack nodded. "Plus, we'll get good food!"

Aerith snorted. "We had plenty of good food yesterday at your parent's place!"

"I know, I know," Zack said. "But sometimes I'm just hungry!"

Aerith laughed now. "Sometimes," she mused. "You're like the growing teenager you were when we first met!"

Zack flushed and scratched the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't holding Aerith's hand. That was so long ago! More than ten years!

And, well, he'd learned over that time period that he was happiest by her side. Though neither of his parents had said it the day before, he knew it'd been on their minds. Was he ever going to eventually settle down and marry her?

Because, there was no question about it, if Zack was going to ever get married, it was going to be to Aerith.

He supposed after that, it was just a matter of 'when?'

And, would it really be 'settling down,' or would it just count as the next stage of their lives?

He supposed he should probably talk to her about that…

But… but he wasn't sure how to even start that conversation.

"What are you thinking about?" Aerith asked.

Zack licked his lips. "You," he said, hoping he didn't sound nervous.

If Aerith picked up on anything off she didn't say anything about it.

They made it to Ms. Strife's house. Given Zack's propensity for mid-air appearances (though he was usually better about it when he was with Aerith), he'd made a conscious decision not to appear in the middle of town, for everyone else's sakes.

Zack went up and knocked on the door.

After a minute, Ms. Strife came and answered it.

"You're not my son," she said. "But you're the third-best thing."

Though her mouth was not smiling, her eyes were.

"Gosh," Zack said, acting offended. "What's the second best?"

"Tifa with Cloud."

"That's fair."

"What brings you two here?" she asked.

"Mostly to say hello!" Aerith said, standing on her tip-toes in excitement. "We'd hoped that Cloud would pass through here, but he got sidetracked."

"You know what he's been up to then?"

Aerith and Zack both nodded.

"Come in, have a seat. Have you eaten?"

Aerith giggled as Zack said, "Not yet, ma'am!"

Cloud's mom busied herself with making them sandwiches as Aerith and Zack talked about how Cloud had been doing.

"Remind me to give you my address," Cloud's mom said. "So that you can write me this as it's happening. Tifa does that occasionally, but I take it she and Cloud are both fairly busy?"

"Well, there was a very large chunk of time where Cloud and Tifa were both staying and helping us restore our World," Aerith said. "They only left a couple of days ago. Cloud had _said _he was going to come here, but as I'd said, he got sidetracked."

"Doing what exactly?"

Zack couldn't remember if Cloud had told his mom about Sephiroth or not, so he figured it best not to mention that part. However, he could mention the kid.

"Well, yesterday, I know they were in Midgar and they found a kid," he said.

Ms. Strife raised an eyebrow.

"From the sounds of it, he has mako poisoning and his whole family's gone," Zack said. He realized that there was probably a nicer way to put that, but it was too late.

"Probably AVALANCHE's doing," Ms. Strife said.

"What's that?" Zack asked.

"A terrorist group that is taking the destruction of Shinra into their own hands," she said in hushed tones. "You're best not getting involved."

Zack held up his hands. "I wasn't going to."

Aerith frowned.

"What?" Zack asked.

"Needless killing," she murmured. "I don't care if it's for a good cause, sometimes… sometimes people make me sad." Zack put an arm around her.

They changed the subject then. Ms. Strife wanted to know how the restoration of Hollow Bastion was going. They were able to say that things were going very well (though they left out parts regarding Xehanort, as he shouldn't concern Ms. Strife).

Afternoon wore into evening and Zack figured they should be getting back to Hollow Bastion. Aerith was probably antsy to see the boy that Cloud and Tifa had found. Zack himself actually wanted to go out and fight things. Gongaga had been quiet and since they'd spent most of the day indoors in Nibelheim, it had been quiet there as well. They bid Ms. Strife goodbye and ducked into the backyard for Zack to activate the star shard.

"Hollow Bastion, here we come," Zack said.


End file.
